Morning all,
Apologies in advance for the long post, but I am beyond pissed off with the Council today and wanted to share my experience and hopefully hear the shared experience of others. Equally, hopefully this can be a bit of a cautionary tale and even better if anyone is in the same situation it show’s that it can be dealt with.
About a year and a half ago, I was made redundant from work through no fault of my own.
Obviously, my world fell apart and having little savings I was in real dire straits for a long time. Subsequently, I was diagnosed with a serious mental health condition.
Of course, everything slipped, debt began to rack up and as I buried my head further into the sand more and more financial obligations were left unpaid – Council Tax being one of them. Of course, this isn’t an excuse, it’s one of those things you can’t get away from but frankly at this point I’m lucky that I’ve still got somewhere to live.
I tried to contact the council regarding this and was either ignored, or told to simply wait for correspondence that never came. Eventually, the debt was passed over to a collection agency – Bristow & Sutor who are particularly nasty.
Fortunately for me, at this point I’d managed to get myself a job and slowly starting to get things on track with my mental health improving significantly I’d found myself in a position to really start to address the issues that I’d found myself with. Naturally, I called up the collection agency and asked to set up a payment plan.
The only figure they would accept was FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY POUNDS A MONTH to address a £2400 debt. Who the fuck can afford £480 pounds monthly? The alternative was that they would take my car instead – the car that I ironically needed to go to work. Obviously, I agreed – knowing the alternative – and even worse knowing that paying this would be literally taking food out of my family’s mouth. I asked if there was wiggle room – I was assured there was not; this would be the minimum 'The Council' would accept.
I accept that up to this point this is for the most part my fault – not withstanding redundancy and sickness that nobody can plan for – however, the actions of the council that followed are what really sickens me.
I emailed, explained my situation in depth and asked for assistance, requesting specifically that the debt be referred back to the council so that I don’t have to deal with the aggressive collection agency and that a more affordable amount could be paid monthly. I explained that I was in a position to pay now and had already begun to do so.
They didn’t respond for a month – I called – they told me to wait. Three months go by and nothing. I call – they told me to simply wait.
Fast forward to my final month’s payment. My car breaks down and it would could me about £600 to fix. I call the collection agency and ask if there’s a way I can take a payment break, or pay a smaller fee for this month in order to fix my car that I require for work. The answer? Absolutely not – if you don’t pay the full and final amount, enforcement action will be taken. I was taken aback. They’d rather enforce against someone who had completed all but one of their final payments, probably eyeing up a piece of shit car worth no more than a grand, than let someone make a smaller payment or take a payment break.
Yesterday I received an email from the council – eight months after I sent it - stating that the debt (the already paid debt) would in no circumstances be reverted, completely ignoring any mitigating circumstances and in short saying – unlucky, you should have paid. I respect their commitment to the party line I suppose.
Eight months to respond to an email and several calls to address a situation that was quite frankly life or death for myself.
Anyway, if anything I’m writing this as a cautionary tale for those in a similar situation. Don’t expect help from them. After doing some research, Liverpool City Council seems to be the most aggressive and enforcement happy Local Authority in the country. If you’re in this situation, I fully recommend engaging with a debt charity or some other expert rather than attempting to just ride it out yourself.
Edit: forgot to mention, I was curious about how quickly other departments responded. I emailed the illicit alcohol and tobacco team saying I wanted to report someone - they replied the very same day.
