Hi all ,

We have been paying for council tax arrears for our previous property , we moved out and was paying for 2 council taxes for previous property and paying £30 a month. We came to conclusion that we could only afford £20 one month we asked council to lower it to £20 and defaulted one month as we simply couldnt afford it - we wrote to explain and they have now slapped on a DEO. They have imposed 2 orders - I think its in order to get the maximum money from us.

We wrote and emailed them to no response as yet, explaining to them (with financial statements attached) that we could not afford it , and as we were previously paying £30 we asked to reduce to £20 ,and now they are going to take 10% of our wage. I feel this is wrong as we simply dont have the money, only one of us is working part time, the other is unemployed and not entitled to jsa due to my salary..

This DEO is now going to put us in hardship, just because we requested a lower payment and have already been paying previously , is there anything I can do? The chap at the council has said we can appeal to his supervisor against his decision, which we have done but no response as yet..I have already had copies of the deo which have been sent to my employer so I think its too late to do anything, but I do know that when they take the money, I wont be able to afford to live as we litrerally scrape by as it is..

Is there anything I can do?

Appeal but once they have put an attachm,ent of earnings on it tends to stay there until the debt is paid, trouble with council tax is that it is too easy for councils to send in bailiffs/get Attachment of earnings orders etc I notice you said that the person who is unemployed cannot claim JSA because of your salary I am not sure that is right JSA is paid to people who are not working and availible to work, it is not dependent on any other household income as far as I am aware, I could be wrong but you need to recheck this.

From what you've said I would have thought you'd qualify for JSA and Council Tax Benefit if you only have one part time income.

The Council's recovery team perceive you to be at a high risk default as you reduced one instalment and then missed a second, and they're unlikely to enter into an agreement unless you can draw up a financial statement perhaps with the help of CAB.