Advice about Walker Love, letter through door claiming CT arrears but I have a payment plan

dekaspace1

I had a few debts ranging back from 10 years ago to about 4 years go mostly due to the period when I was going through a lot of MH issues, they did an arrestment 2 years ago of an amount then said there was still a balance of around £200 so I set up a £15 a month payment plan,

Around 10 days ago I get a letter saying I owed money and giving me X amount of days to pay, their phone lines never picked up saying they do call backs and to text them etc, I emailed them got no response, each time I phoned I couldn't get through then got an letter about 5 days ago saying they have noticed I am paying £15 a month to them and they will assume that is for the debt.

Today get a letter through my door saying I owe about £400 (£100 of that fees) and giving me 14 days to pay or they will take it further.

Trying to get through now but 12th in the queue, went down to 5 then back up to 10, the  up to 12!

Jude57

dekaspace1 said:

I had a few debts ranging back from 10 years ago to about 4 years go mostly due to the period when I was going through a lot of MH issues, they did an arrestment 2 years ago of an amount then said there was still a balance of around £200 so I set up a £15 a month payment plan,

Around 10 days ago I get a letter saying I owed money and giving me X amount of days to pay, their phone lines never picked up saying they do call backs and to text them etc, I emailed them got no response, each time I phoned I couldn't get through then got an letter about 5 days ago saying they have noticed I am paying £15 a month to them and they will assume that is for the debt.

Today get a letter through my door saying I owe about £400 (£100 of that fees) and giving me 14 days to pay or they will take it further.

Trying to get through now but 12th in the queue, went down to 5 then back up to 10, the  up to 12!

I'm assuming you mean you had Council Tax debts for about six years? Each financial year for Council Tax is a separate debt. It's most likely that you have paid towards one financial year via the arrestment but it's quite possible that not every year you owe for has been cleared so that Walker Love have been instructed to collect. I think it's important that you establish exactly what you owe, for what years and what was paid by the arrestment. Unfortunately, £15 a month will take forever to clear even a couple of hundred pounds of debt and it's possible the Council aren't including everything in that £15 a month arrangement. 

If you're having no luck contacting Walker Love, contact the Council Tax department to find out exactly what the situation is. If you can't get a detailed breakdown from them, contact your local Councillor, contact information on the Council's website, and ask them to intervene.

More importantly, if you have outstanding debts, contact StepChange or Citizens Advice for help dealing with them. If your financial situation isn't likely to improve, there may be ways of dealing with your debts, including previous years Council Tax, in a better way than small monthly instalments. But be careful to us trusted links and avoid lookalike sites. You never have to pay for debt advice. Here's the StepChange link:

https://www.stepchange.org/

dekaspace1

Jude57 said:

dekaspace1 said:

I had a few debts ranging back from 10 years ago to about 4 years go mostly due to the period when I was going through a lot of MH issues, they did an arrestment 2 years ago of an amount then said there was still a balance of around £200 so I set up a £15 a month payment plan,

Around 10 days ago I get a letter saying I owed money and giving me X amount of days to pay, their phone lines never picked up saying they do call backs and to text them etc, I emailed them got no response, each time I phoned I couldn't get through then got an letter about 5 days ago saying they have noticed I am paying £15 a month to them and they will assume that is for the debt.

Today get a letter through my door saying I owe about £400 (£100 of that fees) and giving me 14 days to pay or they will take it further.

Trying to get through now but 12th in the queue, went down to 5 then back up to 10, the  up to 12!

I'm assuming you mean you had Council Tax debts for about six years? Each financial year for Council Tax is a separate debt. It's most likely that you have paid towards one financial year via the arrestment but it's quite possible that not every year you owe for has been cleared so that Walker Love have been instructed to collect. I think it's important that you establish exactly what you owe, for what years and what was paid by the arrestment. Unfortunately, £15 a month will take forever to clear even a couple of hundred pounds of debt and it's possible the Council aren't including everything in that £15 a month arrangement. 

If you're having no luck contacting Walker Love, contact the Council Tax department to find out exactly what the situation is. If you can't get a detailed breakdown from them, contact your local Councillor, contact information on the Council's website, and ask them to intervene.

Just logged back in,

No it was specifically for each year, I was given a breakdown so it was like balance unpaid for year, amount paid towards that year so a £200 debt may have £180 paid and another may be £150 with £100 paid, they would count the 10% penalty as £35 rather than £7.

Also the arrears for previous years were at a set amount per month they added on this years as I forgot a payment, and due to Christmas I didn't get the letter saying it was late.

Did phone council who referred me back to Walker Love,

It's not that I can't pay It's that it's large amounts coming out at once, mixed with things over the years like going to college, changing benefits so at the time I got mixed up with when and what I paid.

dekaspace1

Little update on this, turns out I have been overpaying CT for at least 2 years my fault in that I assumed I had the single person discount, looks like I did have it so assumed it was ongoing and just never checked.

Council had my property down as a couple living here.

What annoys me about that is it means I got a charge on my account for late payment when I should of been paid off, I guess I can't get that amount back.

lincroft1710

dekaspace1 said:

What annoys me about that is it means I got a charge on my account for late payment when I should of been paid off, I guess I can't get that amount back.

No harm in asking for an erroneous charge to be refunded

Jude57

dekaspace1 said:

Little update on this, turns out I have been overpaying CT for at least 2 years my fault in that I assumed I had the single person discount, looks like I did have it so assumed it was ongoing and just never checked.

Council had my property down as a couple living here.

What annoys me about that is it means I got a charge on my account for late payment when I should of been paid off, I guess I can't get that amount back.

My advice for the future would be to carefully read, and if necessary re-read any official correspondence you get. Your Council Tax bill will clearly show any reductions you have been awarded and on the back of it, or on the information booklet issued with the annual bill, will be details of reductions you may be entitled to claim and how to claim them. It's your responsibility to ensure you claim any reductions in a timely manner.

dekaspace1

Jude57 said:

dekaspace1 said:

Little update on this, turns out I have been overpaying CT for at least 2 years my fault in that I assumed I had the single person discount, looks like I did have it so assumed it was ongoing and just never checked.

Council had my property down as a couple living here.

What annoys me about that is it means I got a charge on my account for late payment when I should of been paid off, I guess I can't get that amount back.

My advice for the future would be to carefully read, and if necessary re-read any official correspondence you get. Your Council Tax bill will clearly show any reductions you have been awarded and on the back of it, or on the information booklet issued with the annual bill, will be details of reductions you may be entitled to claim and how to claim them. It's your responsibility to ensure you claim any reductions in a timely manner.

Thanks, just confusing when I have autism and dyslexia, I saw various things like amount a, minus something and assumed the minus was the single person discount, also had random ct benefit awards so get even more confused.