Council tax summary warrant after repayments not coming off from ESA

[GingerFish]

A month or so ago I started to get ESA for health reasons and I also got a final reminder in for last years council tax. The bill came to around £300 odd and I couldn't afford to pay it all at once so called up the council and explained I am on ESA and was looking to set up a repayment plan. They said that was no problem and they would take £6 off my ESA every week. They said they would do it automatically and I wouldn't notice it was even gone.

So I thought it had been taken off each week and the money was going to the council and then today I got a letter through saying the council hasn't received anything from me and the sheriff has added 10% onto my bill and its now at £400 and it must be paid immediately or I risk either an earnings arrestment, an arrestment of my bank account or attachment. There was also a form to fill out asking for more of my bank details.

What's annoying is that I got this letter on a Saturday and they are shut at the weekend so I'm going to worrying about this all weekend. I used what I had left in my account from my last payment which was only £26 to pay some of it off so that's me totally skint until my next payment which is over a week away but in a panic, I didn't know what else to do.

What exactly is attachment? I can hazard a guess what the other two mean but I've never heard of that before.

If I call up or go into the office first thing on Monday morning, will I still be able to settle a repayment plan? Or will they actually expect it to be paid 100% in full? I can only do that if I take out a loan but I don't know if I would get that as I am a part time student and I've been turned down in the past.

I'm very worried.

[GingerFish]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm worried that the council wont accept a repayment plan on Monday and then I'll end up having bailiffs at my door :(

[MyNameIsTerry]

It's with the sheriffs now so whatever you do to follow this up, I would copy them into the process or they will just do what they need to as the council may not tell them about what they are talking to you about.

An attachment, and this is probably going to be quite annoying when I say this, is exactly what you asked the council to do. It means the council have asked the courts to issue a Liability Order against you so that they can instruct your employer to make deductions from salary (Earnings Attachment) or the DWP to deduct from your benefits (Benefit Attachment). That means though that you incur court costs on top of it. If a BA is granted, the DWP pay it monthly until it is cleared but I don't know how they set the value to pay. The council can easily set a payment plan with you, but it seems like the DWP need this to be instructed so is this where it has gone wrong?

If you read about Liability Orders, there is a hearing date set. This makes me question what they are doing here. This sounds more like chasing for outstanding arrears as a debt as opposed to not being able to pay.

I would concentrate on the incompetent that has caused this - the council worker who has told you "yeah, no problem" and done nothing (perhaps they can't do it and this person didn't want to admit blame or perhaps it was just never done) as this has now caused this issue with the sheriff.

[GingerFish]

I went into see the council today and they said everything is fine and that letter was automated and can be ignored. They said it takes a while to get the deal with ESA to be set up but its all OK.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I'm glad it is sorted. Thats a bit of a harsh debt letter :ohmy:

I worked with a system that used automated letter stages for debts and if someone like you arranged something like you did we would need to put your account on hold until the new arrangements were in place or your account would just keep advancing down the debt pathway and things like this would happen...followed by angry customers, complaints, etc.

So, it may be that the first person didn't put a hold (block, dispute, or whatever they may call it) in their system. I'm thinking this because of the 10% added by the sheriff. So, this person you spoke to might have omitted that in favour of sorting it and not getting a potential complaint. But as long as it's sorted, great. If anything happens further, perhaps ask about things like that to see if they admit anything as you really shouldn't have been put through all that.

[GingerFish]

Random question but its a bank holiday on Monday and that is when I am due to be paid, will I get paid on Monday or will it be paid early as in maybe tomorrow or Saturday? Its just so I can let the council know as know I am in HB arrears so need to make a payment plan for that now! Luckily that is only £50 so can pay it off with one payment hopefully.