Help! Attachment of earnings order

LadyLottie

My son is 21 and in his first full time job after leaving uni. He has just noticed that for the second month in a row he has been deducted over £200 for an AEO and he has no other information. His boss has asked the payroll team to provide information, but this seems to be the end of a very long process, with my son completely in the dark the whole time. Could this be identity theft? He checked Experian yesterday for !!!!!! first time and there are no CCJs showing. This seems very serious to me, but how can we find out more and resolve?

fatbelly

It would be hard for a normal debt to get though the entire court process to AEO  stage without him knowing anything. It could be a mistake - his work will have to explain.

It would be more likely to get to that stage quickly if it was for council tax. Is that a possibility?

LadyLottie

Thanks for your reply. It does seem strange to me how he’s avoided the whole escalation process but he did have a number of student addresses so it’s possible post has ended up in one of those. It shouldn’t be council tax as he shouldn’t be liable? Hopefully it’s a mistake - and he swears he doesn’t know what it is - so we’ll have to wait for his payroll team to advise.

CIS

LadyLottie said:

Thanks for your reply. It does seem strange to me how he’s avoided the whole escalation process but he did have a number of student addresses so it’s possible post has ended up in one of those. It shouldn’t be council tax as he shouldn’t be liable? Hopefully it’s a mistake - and he swears he doesn’t know what it is - so we’ll have to wait for his payroll team to advise.

The payroll team should be able to say who has sent them the attachment order as the paperwork will be different depending on who has issued it.

It's certainly possible that it is a council tax debt if he's moved around a lot and for some reason the council haven't been updated properly.

fatbelly

That's what I thought, CIS. It's not come through as a DEA and there's no evidence of county court process.

Either a complete mistake or council tax

Exodi

Payroll would have received a letter telling them to make the deductions.

It doesn't state what the deduction is for but you may be able to work backwards if you have the details of who issued it.

I'm just going to say it - are you really, really, really sure he doesn't know about it?

Young adults hiding debt from their parents happens so often, it's almost part of growing up now.

[Deleted User]

DWP Attachment of Earnings is another that won't show on the credit report. If he has ever been on UC/job seekers (not matter how short a time) and had an Advance, (and possibly wrongly or over paid benefit) I can see this situation easily occurring.

LadyLottie

Thanks for all your input. He hasn’t claimed benefits and should not have been liable for council tax as a full time student. He may well have a debt he’s forgotten about (or buried) but I think only his payroll dept can shed any light now. He did have fraud on his current account recently but this would obviously predate that by a long time.

fatbelly

Let us know when you find out!

notes1

You say “should not of been liable for council tax” but don’t forget Student council tax exemption would need to be specificity applied for. Could it be he didn’t apply for that and remains liable? I suspect Likely easily sorted and cancelled if this is the case. 

LadyLottie

Well I doubt he will have applied for exemption - I thought the landlord/owner did that? However, as far as I know, none of his former housemates have had this situation, so we’ll have to wait to see who requested the order. If it was council tax then it will be Liverpool City Council as that was where he was at uni.