Council Tax Support

Gig1968

Sorry I meant my pip end date letter. yeah I get the uplift letter but they won't have that either. I'm stuck

Spoonie_Turtle

poppy12345 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Gig1968 said:

Absolute shambles Birmingham city council they are wanting an award letter dated in this year. The last award letter I had was in 2019. I have a PIP award letter from last year also not good enough apparently. I tried to explain to them don't send out an award letter every year.She suggested I carried on paying tax and if we were paying the incorrect amount which we are, they would refund us one month. I'm really going to do that aren't I I have cancelled the direct debit. Do these people live in the real word. I have already overpaid by a fortune. 

Doesn't the award letter give the end date of the award? 

No. ESA Support Group is an ongoing award so there's no end date on any letter. Although i always receive a yearly uprate letter.

Ohhh yes I was only thinking of PIP as it was mentioned there, forgot that ESA was the basis for CTS.

calcotti

You need to persevere and ring ESA and ask them to send you a confirmation of benefit letter. 

Alice_Holt

I'd be inclined to:
a) Send the council a copy of the ESA letter that you have with an clear explanatory letter - address it to the Head of Revenues and Benefits;
b) Copy this correspondence to your local ward councillor's (with a covering letter explaining the response of the council's call handler, and why their help is needed);

These letters may be best sent through your father (who has the CT liability) they can refer to his age, your PIP award, your joint vulnerability and distress at the situation, etc.   Your local CAB may be able to help you draft these letters, if necessary.   

c) You write to ESA to get confirmation of your current award and that it is an IB award, if possible get a history and chronology of the award;

d) You may consider an Subject Access Request (You re ESA, Your father re CT);

e)  Lodge an appeal with your council - again through your father who has the CT liability on the basis that the current year CTr is incorrect. Request all previous years (when your father was a pensioner) are reviewed and corrected.  Your local CAB may be able to help you with an appeal.

Gig1968

Thanks such good ideas. I tried again with another call handler must have been reading from the same hymn sheet. So unhelpful.
Even had the cheek to say that there would be no refund

At which point I told him he wouldn't be getting any more of my money to waste on the commonwealth games 

Torry_Quine

You need to persevere to get a letter of entitlement. From experience the annual letter updating the amount paid isn't acceptable.

Nannytone

I would be very careful about stopping your direct debit,
Regardless of who is in the right and who is in the wrong, council tax is a priority debt and you could cause yourself an awful lot of unnecessary stress.
Also getting shity with people that that you talked to is never a good look

Gig1968

Why would you not stop the direct debit. If it takes four months to sort it out for example. So that is 4 X £20 = £80. The council have already told me when they generate the new bill for this year which will show no payments need to be made. They can only refund any payments made in the previous 30 days. There are no further adjustments to payments made during the change in circumstances procedure.i have emailed them my PIP award letter, my ESA benefit increase, my cold weather payment letter. So they have enough to be going on with. The direct debit has been stopped. Otherwise it's in their interest to take as long as they can and keep collecting the money that isn't theirs. My dad is 87 we had a load of hassle with them when my mom died in January over garden waste bins. You really don't want letter after letter arriving with your wife's name when they have been informed numerous times. 

CosmoChic

Given your obvious disdain for your local council, and those who work there, are you confident the letter will be forthcoming?

Once you are in receipt of the letter confirming nil CT,  that is the time to cancel the DD. 

Doing so before you have the letter could, as @Nannytone pointed out, cause you difficulties given CT is a priority debt.  

Alice_Holt

CosmoChic said:

[Cancelling the DD] before you have the letter could, as @Nannytone pointed out, cause you difficulties given CT is a priority debt.  

        Should the OP cancel his DD before reaching a resolution with the council, then it will be his 87 year old father who will experience those difficulties. It is his father who has the CT liability, not the OP, so any letters / legal action will come directly to his father. The OP should bear this in mind before taking his suggested action, i.e. does he really wish his actions to cause "hassle" for his father?

       The OP (and his father) would be better to deal with this matter in a polite, persistent, but firm manner, using the standard dispute / appeal routes outlined earlier in the thread. I'm not clear from his subsequent replies if the OP intends to follow this more sensible route to addressing the issue he (and his father) have.