Council Tax Problem

A question about : Council Tax Problem

Hi All,

I hope you can help. I cant seem to find the information and wondered if anyone can help. - my apologies in advance for the poor typing, but im on my laptop and it has dodgy keys.

To cut a very long story short, back in early 2012 I lost my job. I applied for JSA and shortly after recieved assistance with the mortgage.

However, the council stated that the recalculated tax would be zero. which is understandable.

However, I have recenly got a job again, same industry, but with a 8k pay cut from my last position. therefore things are quite tight, and we have already cut back to the bare minimum. i.e. there are no further reductions possible! trust me I have tried.

However, we recently recieved a council tax letter saying they want Ј400 per month now until end of Dec.

This is totally unaffordable! we simply dont have any money spare!, i might be able to push to an extra Ј20 a month ontop, but no more. We have tried calling them and their answer was tough. .... this means, if we have to pay, we literally wont be able to feed our family for now until after december.

My question is this, the last time I lost my job, the council wrote the sum off because I wasnt working. surely if someone is in financial difficulty they need to make allowances and negotiate a fair settlement for all parties?

There is no way I can pay this money. unless the cost is spread out. I have no family I can ask to help.

What are my options?

Kind regards

P

Best answers:

• you could ask for your council tax payments to be spread over the full tax year. The norm appears be be final payment Jan 1st then Feb and March are payment-free with payments restarting 1st April, so this would give you an extra 2 months to spread the payments over
• hi, thanks for the thoughts. whats SoA? also, trust me we really are on the minimum., but im sure it cant hurt...
  also, they have spread the payments out. its Ј400 a month. my normal payment is Ј186 a month. I can only afford Ј20 ontop of this amount.
  I will write to them. but they surely cant force people to pay who genuinely dont have the money?
  I though tthe council tax benefit helped people, not asked them to pay it back??
• ah ha!
  excellent.
  thanks. i will post there in the morning.
  thanks
• What may help is.....
  What is your council tax bill for the year?
  What was the period from the beginning of April that you were receiving JSA?
  Does your partner work?
  Did you make a claim for Council Tax Benefit during this period? Did you close the claim when you went back to work?
  The council tax benefit should cover the period you were out of work
  eg council tax bill Ј1800, Although this looks like it should be Ј150 per month for 12 months, because it is paid over 10 months it is Ј180 per month
  Out of work 3 months receiving full council tax benefit
  The CTC will have covered Ј450 (Ј150x3) leaving Ј1350 to pay over the remaining 7 payment months = Ј193 per month
  If you are on a low income you may still qualify for some help
  https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTax...me/DG_10018923
• It's probably due to what Caz posted a couple of posts ago. Double check they have the correct info as a fist step.
  Secondly ask if you can spread the payments into February and March to help you as you can't afford the current payments.
  Thirdly depending on if you are paying other debts you may need to pay them token amounts in order to get on top of your council tax as council tax is a priority debt and should take priority over unsecured debts.
  Fourthly you should pay what you can each month even if you can't pay the full amount.
  Best of Luck
  df
  Edit: to go from 186 a month to 400 a month seems quite a lot. It seems like as well as you owing the council tax over the remaining installments you may have missed one month? perhaps due to the fact that they have to give you a certain amount of notice of the bill. If this is true you can see if you are able to make an extra months payments to try and spread things out. For example if they have just written to you and said the next payment will be the begining of November see if you can make a payment in October (ie from this months money).
  I'm sure if you post up more details someone can check for you.
  Assuming you owe Nov, Dec and Jan at 400 that's 1200, if you can spread this over 5 months (to include Feb and Mar that's 240 a month and if you can make a payment for Oct as well then that would be 200 a month which is pretty much what you said you can afford. Hopefully I've got all the sums right on this.
• Hi, thank you for the responses, and apologies for the delay in responding. I am currently working in the far east and it appears that the internet is not as good as i expected, so again i will be as straightforward as I can.
  I havent seen the letter, my wife cant scan the document, she says it simply states we must pay Ј470 a month until the new year starts in Jan.
  After all bills and food are paid we only have Ј70 spare a month. That is for everything, kids clothes, shoes, house/car maintanance etc etc.
  Therefore, if it is necessary for me to pay the council tax back, then I can only afford Ј20 a month until finances pick up as my career develops.
  However, the historical situation was this:- Mid March I lost my job, I put on hold all bills, such as elec, gas, tv/internet/phone, etc. The council tax was a benefit as part of the JSA stuff. Our full entitlement was Ј70 a week, which reduced to Ј20 a week later on. (incidentally this annoyed me as we were forced to survive on Ј20 a week!!!!!)
  I started work again in early August.
  My wife, despite working 30+ hours a week, only recieves money if she sells a product on her website. We had no money to promote the website, this meant she could only design her products and hope that someone stumbles accross her website. so over that period I was unemployed she earnt some Ј100. Net profit Ј60.
  Not great, but better than nothing.
  My council tax bill for the year is Ј186x10 = Ј1860 approx. I cant tell as im 1000's of miles from home.... thats all i can remember im afraid.
  I signed on in mid March, I closed the claim, Early August.
  I worked out that I paid 3 x 186, then was out of work until august. that 5 x 186 = 930, leaving a balance of 372 for the remaining months, i.e. Sep, Oct.
  However, my gripe was that my wife called to explain we dont have much cash spare. The council were rather rude with her and basically stated they dont care that we dont have the money we must pay Ј470 for Oct, Nov, Dec. - Good bye Christmas, my daughters 1st birthday, and the birthday my wife organised for me (the latter I dont really mind as I dont like being reminded that i am another year younger). For my wife this is very distressing, as we dont have that much spare money. We are doing the best we can do...
  My salary, tough one, its significantly lower than I WAS on, however, it is above the national average. All, I can say about it is this:-
  My bills, including travel to work, kids to school, and food for the 4 of us = is now in the region of Ј2,000 a month. Most of which are now repayment plans lasting up to 4 years because of the accrued debt. This leaves us with Ј70 a month for the next 4 years or so, possibly less as the salary increase rate is 3%, whilst the actual rising cost of living is more 6%... thats another story.
  I have honestly looked into reducing the costs of everything, I have made calls, and emails, etc etc at length and have as much discount as possible. However, as the single bread earner in the house, there isnt much we can do until daughter no.2 starts school. At that point my wife can return to a more full time work committment. I know some may be thinking, why dont you put kids into nursery/childminder... unfortunately, the cost of this is greater than the mothly salary my wife would earn if she were working full time too. We have already been down that road before and it makes us worse off...
  Therfore we are where we are. It makes no difference on my salary, the council consider im a high earner, with no consideration of the debt we are in. If we had Ј500 spare a month, i would not bat an eyelid and pay it. noo fuss. but we are not in that boat.
  So, I return to my original question. If I recieve council tax benefit for the period I was unemployed, why am I paying it back?? surely there must be a mistake?
  I worked out a balance of 372, which would bring me up to date by October.
  I am writing a letter to the council now, which i will email, however, what should I be asking, can I ask them NOT to take payment until the dispute is settled? We simply cant afford an additional Ј470 taken out of our account or we will default on debts... this is bad... especailly if the mortgage is the one that defaults.
  How can I effectivley explain this to the council?
  Sorry for the long post but this is causing me a significant amount of stress bearing in mind my remote location.
  Kind regards
  P
• yea, as i thought.... letter is on the way asking why this has occurred.
  incidentally, they did attach someonelses council tax information and history within our letter... which i feel is rather odd.
• Hi Kurtstudent, thank you for your query regarding council tax problem.
  Firstly let me say you have done the right thing in explaining the situation to the council tax department and making an offer of repayment based on your available income. It sounds like council tax recoveries are trying to make you clear the whole of the arrears by next March which you have said is not possible with your reduced income. Usually if you cannot clear all of the arrears before the end of the financial year council tax recoveries will get a liability order against you which means they can enforce the debt by means of an attachment of earnings, charging order against your property or send it for collection to a bailiff but it also means they can accept the repayment of the arrears over a longer period of time. I would suggest you write to the council tax recoveries explaining your situation and enclosing a income and expenditure and making the offer again. It is important to remember that this is a priority debt so should be paid before payments to non-priority creditors such as credit cards and catalogues. If the council tax department won't accept your offer or if you have other debts you are struggling to pay I would suggest you seek advice from a specialist debt adviser who can discuss your options, negotiate with creditors and also check you are receiving all the benefits which you are entitled to. You can find more information about completing an income and expenditure and template letters to send to creditors at www.adviceguide.org.uk and you can find your local Citizens Advice Bureau at www.citizensadvice.org.uk.
  Hope this is of assistance.