Get your facts first!

sajamor

I had an arrangement in place to start paying £54 per month towards council tax arrears. Due to preparing for a new job, trying to sort out finance for a franchise and being ill it slipped my mind I had to ring in and make the first payment. Admittedly that was my oversight and I'm not blaming anybody else.

However, I got a text saying I had broken my arrangement and agents would be sent round to collect the full balance. I didn't appreciate the threatening, accusatory tone of this with no attempt to ask or establish mitigating circumstances. For all they knew I could have been in hospital or had a family emergency/tragedy.

I rang up and once I learnt of my mistake did apologise for it. I offered to pay the amount on Thursday when I get holiday pay from my old job come in. I said as well I'd note to make the call so I wouldn't forget.

The agent then began pressurising me to pay today. I didn't think there'd be enough in my bank account and sure enough there was only £20. Still I was challenged to make a payment. I pointed out Thursday was only 2 days away and I did have to eat in the meantime.

I then got quizzed on why I only had £20 left after my Universal Credit payment. (The reason was bills plus new shoes as my others had a big hole in them.) When I stated I'd needed to pay my mobile phone bill I was told the Jacobs bill should have taken priority.

My mobile is currently my only form of communication as I cancelled my WiFi due to lack of money and have no landline. I also need to be contactable by my future employer, my mother with health problems and my church where I help on two teams. When I started saying this I just got talked over.

By now I was losing patience and told the agent I had explained several times my commitment to paying the money. Her turning the screws wasn't going to put money in my account, either. She then said I needed to know how important this was like I didn't understand. I said she was making herself look like a bully and put the phone down.

I have since felt a bit guilty, wondering if I got too defensive and personal. I know there are people who wilfully break arrangements and whose word means nothing. But I couldn't have made it plainer I didn't deserve lumping in that category!

The_Unready

If I've read that correctly, it appears that you didn't have enough money to make the first payment when you eventually contacted the council. If so, what happened to the money that you presumably would have paid if you'd rung up to pay on the originally agreed date?

Surely you had put it to one side knowing that the payment needed to be made at some stage?

diinozzo

sajamor said:

I had an arrangement in place to start paying £54 per month towards council tax arrears. Due to preparing for a new job, trying to sort out finance for a franchise and being ill it slipped my mind I had to ring in and make the first payment. Admittedly that was my oversight and I'm not blaming anybody else.

However, I got a text saying I had broken my arrangement and agents would be sent round to collect the full balance. I didn't appreciate the threatening, accusatory tone of this with no attempt to ask or establish mitigating circumstances. For all they knew I could have been in hospital or had a family emergency/tragedy.

I rang up and once I learnt of my mistake did apologise for it. I offered to pay the amount on Thursday when I get holiday pay from my old job come in. I said as well I'd note to make the call so I wouldn't forget.

The agent then began pressurising me to pay today. I didn't think there'd be enough in my bank account and sure enough there was only £20. Still I was challenged to make a payment. I pointed out Thursday was only 2 days away and I did have to eat in the meantime.

I then got quizzed on why I only had £20 left after my Universal Credit payment. (The reason was bills plus new shoes as my others had a big hole in them.) When I stated I'd needed to pay my mobile phone bill I was told the Jacobs bill should have taken priority.

My mobile is currently my only form of communication as I cancelled my WiFi due to lack of money and have no landline. I also need to be contactable by my future employer, my mother with health problems and my church where I help on two teams. When I started saying this I just got talked over.

By now I was losing patience and told the agent I had explained several times my commitment to paying the money. Her turning the screws wasn't going to put money in my account, either. She then said I needed to know how important this was like I didn't understand. I said she was making herself look like a bully and put the phone down.

I have since felt a bit guilty, wondering if I got too defensive and personal. I know there are people who wilfully break arrangements and whose word means nothing. But I couldn't have made it plainer I didn't deserve lumping in that category!

BIB...REALLY?

sheramber

Not only do you have arrears but you then didn't keep to the arrangement made to pay them.

Why should the agent be convinced that you would pay it two days later?

sajamor

I thought it was coming out by direct debit and had gone out already. I had tried keeping my costs down since receiving Universal Credit. However, it is very difficult when a lot has gone automatically to the council for rent and to other creditors, costs keep going up and I had an unexpected expense. Budgeting is often very much easier in theory than in the practice I did undertake.

The shoes were less than £25 and I do most of my shopping at Aldi. I don't drink, smoke, have regular takeout food or coffees, buy magazines or often buy clothes. I do like to take responsibility for my money and my actions which I did make clear to the agent - I just don't feel anything justifies bullying and I've never resorted to it when I've been in customer services.

NBLondon

sajamor said:

I just don't feel anything justifies bullying and I've never resorted to it when I've been in customer services.

It's not exactly customer services - they were chasing an overdue payment.  You may be a genuine case of human error and being under stress but they deal with dozens of people every day some of whom will be complete chancers who knowingly skipped the payment.  They may well be obliged to go through all the stuff that you felt was condescending or aggressive. Hanging up on them has not helped.

Today is Thursday.  Have you now made the payment?  Have you been back in contact to inform the council of that?  Have you been able to set it up as Direct Debit and informed the council of that?

Hopefully - the new job works out and you can get out of the whole situation.

WhiskersTheWonderCat

The facts seem to be that you are in arrears, arranged to start paying them off, but missed your very first payment to them. I'm not surprised they were being a little pushy for a payment. 

When you have as little as you seem to in your bank account, it should be pretty apparent whether £50 has left it as it was supposed to. Seems like you need some help in managing your money. 

Pollycat

WhiskersTheWonderCat said:

The facts seem to be that you are in arrears, arranged to start paying them off, but missed your very first payment to them. I'm not surprised they were being a little pushy for a payment. 

When you have as little as you seem to in your bank account, it should be pretty apparent whether £50 has left it as it was supposed to. Seems like you need some help in managing your money. 

The OP might do well to visit the debtfree wannabe board for advice on budgeting and cutting outgoings.

goater78

Can see why you’re annoyed but hopefully you’ve made your payment as promised. Once you’ve made a few payments you’ll be treated better I would think as they will see you are making an effort to clear your debt. 

Pollycat

goater78 said:

Can see why you’re annoyed but hopefully you’ve made your payment as promised. Once you’ve made a few payments you’ll be treated better I would think as they will see you are making an effort to clear your debt. 

I think the OP should have been annoyed - with him/herself.

From the use of 'agent' and 'agents would be sent round to collect the full balance.' it sounds like this has been passed to a debt collection agency.
If this is the case, the debt has probably been outstanding for quite a long time and after an agreement was reached to pay an amount by a certain date, the OP missing this payment would have rung alarm bells within the agency.

I do think this is wrong:

sajamor said:

I then got quizzed on why I only had £20 left after my Universal Credit payment. (The reason was bills plus new shoes as my others had a big hole in them.) When I stated I'd needed to pay my mobile phone bill I was told the Jacobs bill should have taken priority.

I found this document:
Council tax collection: best practice guidance for local authorities - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

which says in Section 7:

Effective use of enforcement agents can also be an important way of recovering council tax debt where the authority is satisfied that there are no other appropriate mechanisms for recovering that debt. When collecting unpaid council tax, enforcement agents are working on behalf of the local authority. It is the authority’s responsibility to ensure that agents work within the guidelines set by the authority and that they comply with the regulatory framework and the national standards.

The OP may wish to complain to the Council if he/she feels that the debt collection agency went too far.


 

Gavin83

sajamor said:

I had an arrangement in place to start paying £54 per month towards council tax arrears. Due to preparing for a new job, trying to sort out finance for a franchise and being ill it slipped my mind I had to ring in and make the first payment. Admittedly that was my oversight and I'm not blaming anybody else.

However, I got a text saying I had broken my arrangement and agents would be sent round to collect the full balance. I didn't appreciate the threatening, accusatory tone of this with no attempt to ask or establish mitigating circumstances. For all they knew I could have been in hospital or had a family emergency/tragedy.

I rang up and once I learnt of my mistake did apologise for it. I offered to pay the amount on Thursday when I get holiday pay from my old job come in. I said as well I'd note to make the call so I wouldn't forget.

The agent then began pressurising me to pay today. I didn't think there'd be enough in my bank account and sure enough there was only £20. Still I was challenged to make a payment. I pointed out Thursday was only 2 days away and I did have to eat in the meantime.

I then got quizzed on why I only had £20 left after my Universal Credit payment. (The reason was bills plus new shoes as my others had a big hole in them.) When I stated I'd needed to pay my mobile phone bill I was told the Jacobs bill should have taken priority.

My mobile is currently my only form of communication as I cancelled my WiFi due to lack of money and have no landline. I also need to be contactable by my future employer, my mother with health problems and my church where I help on two teams. When I started saying this I just got talked over.

By now I was losing patience and told the agent I had explained several times my commitment to paying the money. Her turning the screws wasn't going to put money in my account, either. She then said I needed to know how important this was like I didn't understand. I said she was making herself look like a bully and put the phone down.

I have since felt a bit guilty, wondering if I got too defensive and personal. I know there are people who wilfully break arrangements and whose word means nothing. But I couldn't have made it plainer I didn't deserve lumping in that category!

You circumstances are irrelevant to them. You're already in arrears, you've set up a payment plan and you failed to make the first payment. You need to take this more seriously and have a better grip on your finances.

Also I agree with the agent, the council tax bill should take priority. Not paying your council tax is an extremely serious problem. You can even go to prison for it.

In your shoes (excuse the pun) I'd have put up with the old shoes for another week and made sure the council tax bill was paid on time. That was the sensible option. However you are where you are so I really hope you paid the outstanding amount yesterday as promised and continue with the payments from now on. Also don't lose your rag with the caller, that won't help your case.

How much was your phone bill? If you aren't on pay as you go you should be. Then you've got a phone to receive the calls you need to but it won't cost you anything. That is of course assuming you don't use it yourself but it'll still be there for emergency calls. Also if it's anything other than a basic phone I'd suggest selling it, buying a basic phone and using the rest to pay these arrears off.