Never received council tax discount now huge arrears?

poppy12345

HouseTargaryen said:

Reading this thread is shocking. People should be trying to help not going through old posts to bring evidence that OP is not budgeting well enough or doesn't reply at the speed of their liking. You have no idea about OP's life and the judging is shameless. 

Anyway...if you think you should have been entitled to a CT reduction then you could raise this to try to get the arrears down. But by the sounds of it, your best bet may be to try to negotiate a repayment that is as low as possible. CT is up there with rent as a bill that should come off before others due to the severity of non payment, so if meeting those repayments means you don't pay CC bills for example, so be it. If you have other financial pressures that caused you to struggle to make CT payments, such as other debts, then I would recommend speaking to Step Change, the debt chairty. Good luck and ignore the judging! 

When someone comes here asking for advice, it often helps to look back at previous threads to have some idea of past posting, especially when a member either doesn't give enough of information or they just don't "bother" answering the questions that are asked.

People spend a lot of time on the forum giving advice to others free! Drip feeding information is not helpful because it makes advising even harder than it really needs to be.

theDon876

Caz3121 said:

theDon876 said:

Yes both of those I should get 50% discount, I filled in the forms and ticked the boxes online,y work coach double checked it yet it seems by the amount of arrears I never got the discount, so I have any grounds to appeal, I've never paid CT because I can't afford to on UC.

Is the £3,500 the full arrears? eg if you had received the discount you would still be expecting to have £1,750 in arrears as you say you have never paid it? 
I had a recent issue (also Scotland) where I applied for single occupant discount following the death of my husband. Filled in online then after getting no revised bill / online account update I convinced myself I had not completed the application properly so did it again....after another couple of months I contacted local councillor and then received a call from the department to confirm there had been a system error, they could see my applications had been submitted but they had been closed off before any action. Received a revised bill and online account updated within a few days (I had overpaid about 6 payments by this point)

Yes full arrears, you should get 25% for being on UC and 25% for being a single person. Now I'm 100% sure these options were filled out BUT if not can I ask for a discount as they know I was on UC during this time frame, not sure how I prove I was single?

poppy12345

Surely you knew it needed to be paid? or some of it at least? Proving you're a single person could be UC statement, bank statements.

KatrinaWaves

theDon876 said:

Caz3121 said:

theDon876 said:

Yes both of those I should get 50% discount, I filled in the forms and ticked the boxes online,y work coach double checked it yet it seems by the amount of arrears I never got the discount, so I have any grounds to appeal, I've never paid CT because I can't afford to on UC.

Is the £3,500 the full arrears? eg if you had received the discount you would still be expecting to have £1,750 in arrears as you say you have never paid it? 
I had a recent issue (also Scotland) where I applied for single occupant discount following the death of my husband. Filled in online then after getting no revised bill / online account update I convinced myself I had not completed the application properly so did it again....after another couple of months I contacted local councillor and then received a call from the department to confirm there had been a system error, they could see my applications had been submitted but they had been closed off before any action. Received a revised bill and online account updated within a few days (I had overpaid about 6 payments by this point)

Yes full arrears, you should get 25% for being on UC and 25% for being a single person. Now I'm 100% sure these options were filled out BUT if not can I ask for a discount as they know I was on UC during this time frame, not sure how I prove I was single?

Let’s try this again. I will ask the questions very simply, bold and spaced out for your ease of noticing... 

What council area are you living in?

How far back do the arrears go?

What ‘signs’ you say made you think you were getting discount on your tax bill? 

The answers to the above are important. If you made an error, they won’t backdate your CTR. If they made an error (the signs you spoke of) you could potentially appeal.

Your SPD 25% can be backdated as far as you need. Depending on your councils policies it is unlikely your CTR will be backdated at all unless you have these ‘signs’ you were getting them to show them. The fact you have not been paying at all will not help your cause. 

theDon876

KatrinaWaves said:

theDon876 said:

Caz3121 said:

theDon876 said:

Yes both of those I should get 50% discount, I filled in the forms and ticked the boxes online,y work coach double checked it yet it seems by the amount of arrears I never got the discount, so I have any grounds to appeal, I've never paid CT because I can't afford to on UC.

Is the £3,500 the full arrears? eg if you had received the discount you would still be expecting to have £1,750 in arrears as you say you have never paid it? 
I had a recent issue (also Scotland) where I applied for single occupant discount following the death of my husband. Filled in online then after getting no revised bill / online account update I convinced myself I had not completed the application properly so did it again....after another couple of months I contacted local councillor and then received a call from the department to confirm there had been a system error, they could see my applications had been submitted but they had been closed off before any action. Received a revised bill and online account updated within a few days (I had overpaid about 6 payments by this point)

Yes full arrears, you should get 25% for being on UC and 25% for being a single person. Now I'm 100% sure these options were filled out BUT if not can I ask for a discount as they know I was on UC during this time frame, not sure how I prove I was single?

Let’s try this again. I will ask the questions very simply, bold and spaced out for your ease of noticing... 

What council area are you living in?

How far back do the arrears go?

What ‘signs’ you say made you think you were getting discount on your tax bill? 

The answers to the above are important. If you made an error, they won’t backdate your CTR. If they made an error (the signs you spoke of) you could potentially appeal.

Your SPD 25% can be backdated as far as you need. Depending on your councils policies it is unlikely your CTR will be backdated at all unless you have these ‘signs’ you were getting them to show them. The fact you have not been paying at all will not help your cause. 

Scotland Aberdeenshire.
About 2 years.
I thought you ticked these options when you signed up for UC/HB. I've had various encounters with work coaches and JC people asking if they wanted them to check if I was recieving this discount which I did want. 

Basically the arrears are with a collection agency and I'm currently working out a payment plan with them.

KatrinaWaves

theDon876 said:

KatrinaWaves said:

theDon876 said:

Caz3121 said:

theDon876 said:

Yes both of those I should get 50% discount, I filled in the forms and ticked the boxes online,y work coach double checked it yet it seems by the amount of arrears I never got the discount, so I have any grounds to appeal, I've never paid CT because I can't afford to on UC.

Is the £3,500 the full arrears? eg if you had received the discount you would still be expecting to have £1,750 in arrears as you say you have never paid it? 
I had a recent issue (also Scotland) where I applied for single occupant discount following the death of my husband. Filled in online then after getting no revised bill / online account update I convinced myself I had not completed the application properly so did it again....after another couple of months I contacted local councillor and then received a call from the department to confirm there had been a system error, they could see my applications had been submitted but they had been closed off before any action. Received a revised bill and online account updated within a few days (I had overpaid about 6 payments by this point)

Yes full arrears, you should get 25% for being on UC and 25% for being a single person. Now I'm 100% sure these options were filled out BUT if not can I ask for a discount as they know I was on UC during this time frame, not sure how I prove I was single?

Let’s try this again. I will ask the questions very simply, bold and spaced out for your ease of noticing... 

What council area are you living in?

How far back do the arrears go?

What ‘signs’ you say made you think you were getting discount on your tax bill? 

The answers to the above are important. If you made an error, they won’t backdate your CTR. If they made an error (the signs you spoke of) you could potentially appeal.

Your SPD 25% can be backdated as far as you need. Depending on your councils policies it is unlikely your CTR will be backdated at all unless you have these ‘signs’ you were getting them to show them. The fact you have not been paying at all will not help your cause. 

Scotland Aberdeenshire.
About 2 years.
I thought you ticked these options when you signed up for UC/HB. I've had various encounters with work coaches and JC people asking if they wanted them to check if I was recieving this discount which I did want. 

Basically the arrears are with a collection agency and I'm currently working out a payment plan with them.

No you don’t tick boxes when you claim UC.  There are entirely unrelated. There are no boxes for those things. 

Again the job centre has nothing to do with single person discounts, you could be a millionaire with ten jobs and still get it. They may advise you of the discounts but they have no way of ensuring you get them. You have to apply. Considering the DWP used to pay councils to do UC claims, I can’t imagine the DWP actively doing anything with council administered benefits..

 It appears you have not made any claims for council tax reduction benefits nor the single person. You can request single person backdating, that’s simple enough, but the additional discount based on your income is unlikely.
I will have a look at the Aberdeen council website to see their policy. 

KatrinaWaves

okay as I expected it is not an additional 25% as you stated, it is a sliding scale of discounts based on your circumstances. 

You can apply for up to 6 months backdating which is generous, but you have to show good reason for not applying. Usually that is much harder to gain than simply ‘thinking you had already’ or not realising you could apply for it. Worth a try though. You do need to fill in an application form though. It’s not a simple tick box

means tested council tax reduction link: https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/council-tax/apply-council-tax-reduction

single person discount:  https://online.aberdeencity.gov.uk/Services/CouncilTax/HouseholdDiscount.aspx

elsien

You do also need to start budget to pay whatever you owe on an ongoing basis as well as a repayment plan to cover the arrears. 

poppy12345

When you do arrange a payment plan i'd advise you to make sure you keep up to date with the payments.

wilfred30

theDon876 said:

Lanzarote1938 said:

Do you mean Council tax support because of low income or single occupant discount? Have you been paying any Council Tax?

Yes both of those I should get 50% discount, I filled in the forms and ticked the boxes online,y work coach double checked it yet it seems by the amount of arrears I never got the discount, so I have any grounds to appeal, I've never paid CT because I can't afford to on UC.

Maybe if you'd paid the 50% you thought you had to pay, you might have been able to appeal but, as you haven't paid anything at all, your chances are slim to none IMO.

The good news is that I believe people no longer go to prison for failure to pay their Council Tax.