Attachment of earnings taken after it was cancelled.

redrose1414

Hello,
Please can someone help me.
I went bankrupt in February so the attachment of earnings order was cancelled (I never actually received notification of it starting, just a letter of intent and then 3 months later a deduction in my wages). My employer acknowledged receiving the cancellation on the 19/02/18 but said it was too late to stop the deduction on the 24/02/18.
Since then my employer has taken money from my March and April wages but say there is nothing they can do.
I have demanded they send the money back to me but they refuse.
I’m beside myself over this as I had to take out a payday loan to cover the shortfall in my wages and no one is listening to me. I never got a say in how much they deducted in the first place which left me unable to cover my essential outgoings since January so I’m just building up debt again.
Please can someone give me some advice on how to fight this.

debt_doctor

Hi,
What reason does your employer give to you for continuing to deduct despite receiving the cancellation notice in February?

I presume the February attachment went to the creditor - the creditor needs to return this to you.

Has your employer passed the March and April payments to the creditor too? (despite being told to cancel the attachment)

DD

redrose1414

debt_doctor wrote: »

Hi,
What reason does your employer give to you for continuing to deduct despite receiving the cancellation notice in February?

I presume the February attachment went to the creditor - the creditor needs to return this to you.

Has your employer passed the March and April payments to the creditor too? (despite being told to cancel the attachment)

DD

They haven’t given me a reason. They said I need to request the creditor returns it. They have given the March payment to the creditor and April’s will be sent in the 20th May.
The creditor is the council for a council tax debt, they won’t return it.

debt_doctor

Two actions you could take;

Against the employer - Inform them that unless they stop immediately, you will take them to an Employment Tribunal for an 'Unlawful Deduction of Wages' under the Employment Rights Act 1996. This is free and a statutory right. BEWARE, what might your employer do in reaction to this (although dismissal would be automatically unfair at a tribunal)

Against the council. Make a formal complaint that unless they stop the attachment and return the 3 months money you will take your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

You could also ask the OR to contact your employer and/ or the council.

DD

CIS

Attachment of Earnings have always been a nightmare - in most cases the problems lay with an employer taking deductions after being instructed or taking the wrong amounts even after being told how to calculate the attachment.

The first problem may well not be with the council in the first instance, if they've instructed the employer to stop there's not a lot more the council can do other than to keep instructing them to stop. It's frustrating all around when you're telling an employer to cease an attachment and they still continue to take monies (I've lost count of the number of times I've been stuck in the middle of that argument).

The second issue is the council's - if they know the payments are wrong then they should be sorting out to return the monies. As above a complaint followed by the LGO is the route I would also suggest.