Incompetent Council Tax Officials

Bossyboots

I am so angry I just have to vent this somewhere.

My mum received a reassessent of her council tax benefit in July at they stated that for a six month period last year her savings were over the threshold. I knew this could not be true so I spent a whole Saturday putting her figures into a spreadsheet, getting statements together and composing a letter.

Over a month later I have now received a reply, the contents of which defy understanding. I have only received this after chasing them up.

Because the letter did not make sense, I have telephoned them. After much difficulty getting them to comprehend the basics, I asked them to pick a month in the period and give me their figures and tell me which accounts they were referring to. It became clear that they had taken the opening figure of her Nationwide passbook and applied that across the board but only for those six months. As this account fed her ISA, she was credited for several thousand pounds she did not have. What they have not looked at is the fact that since the end of 2003 there has been less than £400 in the account but oh no, they don't appear to be able to read the dates on the side of a passbook.

This is the second time they have been asked to review the figures and still got it wrong. The lady I spoke to agreed there was a mistake and is going to have it reviewed again.

I just cannot believe people in such an important position of determining what benefits someone gets can do something so incompetent, not once, but three times.

IvanOpinion

This one is easy to solve ... you made the mistake Bossyboots ... you creditted someone that works for the council with intelligence ... as soon as you do that they are guaranteed to prove you wrong

Ivan

Bossyboots

IvanOpinion wrote:

This one is easy to solve ... you made the mistake Bossyboots ... you creditted someone that works for the council with intelligence ... as soon as you do that they are guaranteed to prove you wrong

Ivan

I guess I have to hold my hands up to that one. I promise it won't happen again.

April2

IvanOpinion wrote:

This one is easy to solve ... you made the mistake Bossyboots ... you creditted someone that works for the council with intelligence ... as soon as you do that they are guaranteed to prove you wrong

Ivan

I work for a council and I have an IQ of 141.

What's yours?

Mr_Skint_2

April2 wrote:

I work for a council and I have an IQ of 141.

What's yours?

So wot ya doing here then. :rotfl:

April2

Mr_Skint wrote:

So wot ya doing here then. :rotfl:

I was 'overqualified' for the council job I applied for so I work as a refuse disposal consultant (that's 'binman' to those not yet into New Labour jargon).

April2

April2 wrote:

I work for a council and I have an IQ of 141.

What's yours?

Sorry, thought I was filling in the tax return again.

That should've been 114.

IvanOpinion

April2 wrote:

I was 'overqualified' for the council job I applied for so I work as a refuse disposal consultant (that's 'binman' to those not yet into New Labour jargon).

Of course you are over qualified to work for a council ... anybody that has any kind of IQ is over qualified, generally being able to string words into coherent sentences is just about enough to exclude you from a position ... the job interview is usually dead simple.

Interviewer: "Good morning, now Mr Smith why do you want to work for the council?"
Mr Smith: "Floogalpootenhaven"
Interviewer: "Very good Mr Smith you will fit in just nicely here .. welcome on board"

Ivan

aliasojo

IvanOpinion wrote:

Interviewer: "Good morning, now Mr Smith why do you want to work for the council?"
Mr Smith: "Floogalpootenhaven"
Interviewer: "Very good Mr Smith you will fit in just nicely here .. welcome on board"

Ivan

Ivan, I have seen you talk some [email="cr@p"]!!!!!![/email] during my time on this site, but that one beats the lot!

Have a thank you on me for making me laugh.

BB: hope it gets sorted out soon.

Bossyboots

The sage rumbles on.

Despite asking that this matter be resolved before I went on holiday, it was not.

While I was away a letter arrived stating that they had looked at the figures and noticed two large withdrawals from one of the accounts. They want me to confirm that these were transferred to another account so that they are not "double counting". To say that I am bemused is an understatement. I am at a loss to understand why they cannot see that the money in the accounts is just that and in the context of our correspondence, the whereabouts of the withdrawals are not relevant.

My own suspicion is that they are seeking to cover their errors and will at some stage soon inform me that the reason they used the full figure from that account was because the withdrawals were unaccounted for. I have written back to them asking for their explanation of the phrase double accounting and an explanation of why this was not raised before. I hope that wording of my letter will make it clear that I am wise to any ruse they may pull to try and cover their mistakes, which to me they have now simply compounded.

I have pointed that I also suspect what they really want to know is whether the money was withdrawn to reduce/hide savings and also stated that if that is what they want to know, why not just ask outright.

The money was in fact transferred into another account, information they already had, so they could easily have sorted this out by now. I have the evidence to provide to them but I can't help thinking what the position would be if the money had been used, for example, for private medical treatment of a personal nature. Would they expect to see the receipts for that, thus truly invading my mum's privacy.

I have looked to see who I can complain to over their heads but am not sure who regulates this department. If anyone has any info, I would be grateful.

Fifer

It's time to chuck your toys out of the pram. You've been patient enough. Tell them that you want to make a formal complaint about the way the situation has been handled, with a view to raising it with the Public Services Ombudsman if it is not resolved within a specified period of time. Alternatively (or additionally), get support from your Councillor and/or MP. If you are in Scotland, contact your constituency MSP and list MSPs too, or the Welsh equivalents if you live there.