Council tax arrears help

EllC1606

Help and advice needed please.

I have built up a council tax arrears debt of £6500 which has accrued over a number of years as I have been struggling. I’m a single mum and whilst I have a reasonable salary now that hasn’t been the case.

Whilst I know that this is a priority debt and has to be paid the council have now applied an attachment of earnings order which means that they are going to deduct £641 per month from my salary. Yes I do havve a good salary but with everything else to pay for and no maintenance from my daughter’s father, I can’t afford this.

My options as I see it are 1) Debt Relief Order and 2) A loan to clear all of the debt.

I want to go for option 2 however need a guarantor as I don’t have a good credit history and can’t find one. Can anyone advise if there are any other options or loans for bad credit that won’t require a guarantor? Thanks

elsien

Is there a way to challenge the amount being taken via the attachment of earnings and get it reduced?

Willing2Learn

Hi and welcome to the forum

EllC1606 wrote: »

... the council have now applied an attachment of earnings order which means that they are going to deduct £641 per month from my salary. Yes I do havve a good salary but with everything else to pay for and no maintenance from my daughter’s father, I can’t afford this.

I believe you can apply for the attachment of earnings deduction to be varied or changed, if you consider the amount to be unaffordable. You will need to provide evidence of your budget, to prove what is and what is not affordable.

Edit: There is a National Debtline fact sheet about this, that explains which form you need to vary the order (N244)
https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/countycourtattachmentofearningsorders/attachmentofearningsorders.aspx?gclid=EAIaIQobC!!!!vSujOfx3QIVCbDtCh3-UA_0EAAYASAAEgKDbPD_BwE

sourcrates

Hi,


Do not go for the loan option, even if a guarantor could be sought, the interest rates are a crippling amount of money, usually north of 69.9% it would be like jumping out of the frying pan, into the fire, forget that option, please.


For CT debts, the council only need obtain a liability order, and then set up an AOE.


This is deducted at a fixed amount, it can be challenged, but is quite difficult to change the payment amount, the procedure is different to an AOE set up as a result of a CCJ, for that you can apply to vary the judgement on an N244, but this does not apply to liability orders.

CIS

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Hi and welcome to the forum


I believe you can apply for the attachment of earnings deduction to be varied or changed, if you consider the amount to be unaffordable. You will need to provide evidence of your budget, to prove what is and what is not affordable.

Edit: There is a National Debtline fact sheet about this, that explains which form you need to vary the order (N244)
https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/countycourtattachmentofearningsorders/attachmentofearningsorders.aspx?gclid=EAIaIQobC!!!!vSujOfx3QIVCbDtCh3-UA_0EAAYASAAEgKDbPD_BwE

That is not valid for a liability order AOE - the N244 is for a CCJ and works under different rules.

AOEs for CCJ's are made under the Attachment of Earnings Act 1971, this doesn't apply for council tax AOEs as they have their own system (which is similar to the 1971 Act but has subtle differences). An Attachment of Earnings Act 1971 AOE has a provision for the court to alter the rate but this provision is not built in to the council tax AOE

Slight tangent but there was a recent case where a DJ (Magistrates) got his wrist slapped for telling a council they could (and should) use a CCJ AOE route before committal.

CIS

EllC1606 wrote: »

Help and advice needed please.

I have built up a council tax arrears debt of £6500 which has accrued over a number of years as I have been struggling. I’m a single mum and whilst I have a reasonable salary now that hasn’t been the case.

Whilst I know that this is a priority debt and has to be paid the council have now applied an attachment of earnings order which means that they are going to deduct £641 per month from my salary. Yes I do havve a good salary but with everything else to pay for and no maintenance from my daughter’s father, I can’t afford this.

My options as I see it are 1) Debt Relief Order and 2) A loan to clear all of the debt.

I want to go for option 2 however need a guarantor as I don’t have a good credit history and can’t find one. Can anyone advise if there are any other options or loans for bad credit that won’t require a guarantor? Thanks

Now the amount is known for the attachment have you approached the council with a counter offer of a payment arrangement ? There is the aggravating circumstances that the amount is across several years worth of council tax but it's always worth asking - the worst they can do is say no.

Where an AOE was issued from my office we would always consider withdrawing the order where an alternative offer was made (and the financial justification made) on the basis that the order would not be withdrawn a second time if payment was defaulted on. If it was a case where there were 2 AOEs in place then we would always consider withdrawing one of the orders if a case was made.

System

Ultimately remember that non-payment of council tax is punishable by a prison sentence.

fatbelly

EllC1606 wrote: »

Help and advice needed please.

I have built up a council tax arrears debt of £6500 which has accrued over a number of years as I have been struggling. I’m a single mum and whilst I have a reasonable salary now that hasn’t been the case.

Whilst I know that this is a priority debt and has to be paid the council have now applied an attachment of earnings order which means that they are going to deduct £641 per month from my salary. Yes I do havve a good salary but with everything else to pay for and no maintenance from my daughter’s father, I can’t afford this.

My options as I see it are 1) Debt Relief Order and 2) A loan to clear all of the debt.

I want to go for option 2 however need a guarantor as I don’t have a good credit history and can’t find one. Can anyone advise if there are any other options or loans for bad credit that won’t require a guarantor? Thanks

That's a large deduction. Your net earnings must be £2615.20 as they deduct 17% of the first £2020 and 50% of the remainder.

17% of £2020 = £343.40 and then £50% of 595.20 is 297.60.

Added together gives £641

I think we could advise better if we could see the whole picture and ask you to post a statement of affairs.

If you can live on just under 2k per month it may be best to just run with this. If there are other debts and things are really tight then you may be looking at bankruptcy. It would be unusual but not impossible for someone with your earnings to qualify for a DRO. If you do, then that is often a neat way to deal with large council tax arrears.

There's an soa calculator here

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php