i would suggest you speak to the housing benefits department again. they will look at it was a contrived tenancy (family renting off family) however if there's a tenancy agreement in place and evidence i.e receipts of rent being paid then they may consider it. be worth booking an appointment with a senior benefits assessor to discuss it. if there are only two people living in the property, your sister may be able to claim second adult rebate for her son through the Council tax benefit department. this is assessed on the gross income and various between 0% - 25%

each financial year (april - march) must be treated as separate years. When you got your new bill in march (assuming your instalments normally go from april - jan with the statutory two months off) it would have shown your ten monthly instalments plus a note to say that there is £x amount outstanding for a previous financial year you can either offer a new arrangment to include both debts or set up a new arrangement to run alongside your other one. Alternativly you can ask the council to deduct the money from your earnings. there are levels which are set out depending upon your monthly/weekly/daily earnings. i can let you know of these levels if you can let me know if your monthly, weekly or daily paid and i'll list the different bands for you

Hi All Council's are governed by the 6 year rule so they have to bring the matter before the Magistrates' within 6 years of the debt falling due. Once they have the Liability order there is no time scale in which to collect they debt by. As long as the Council served documentation at the "last known address" then it is seen by the Magistrates' as good service even though you may have moved and not collected your mail. As you're not on the electoral register they wont be able to pick you up from that. Most Council's do have a write off policy. Generally if the bailiff returns it as absconder and the Council either passess it out to a tracing agency ior does the work themselves and they're unable to locate the person then they will write the debt off. if you have any querie PM me