As an update, I had forgotten the period they had charged me for my mother living with me in 2003 - after she died from cancer in 2000.

There is a history of the council's erratic updating methods as well as being economical with the truth. I guess I shall have to sue.

Hello, Ruby,

So Housing Benefit wrote to you stating they had made an overpayment to your rent account and was seeking recovery for this amount?

Did they recover the amount of overpayment directly from the Rent Account in one lump sum?

If they recovered the money directly from the Rent Account, was it this action of theirs that led your Rent Account to be in arrears?

Are they now taking money from the Rent Account after they have reclaimed their overpayment?

If the answers to the above is ‘yes’ and Housing Benefit has already reclaimed the overpayment from your Rent Account and are now taking extra money from that account, then I would suggest you write a Recorded Delivery letter, keeping a copy, asking them to stop taking the money and start an investigation.

I would suggest giving them fourteen days as a maximum to respond to this letter in the first instance although it may take much longer for them to supply you with details while they do their investigation, they should stop taking any money from the account during this.

As with my initial suggestion, supply them with any details you have of the names of people of whatever departments you spoke with regarding this matter.

Ask them to supply you with a breakdown of full details of payments as well as deductions from both the Housing Benefit Account and the Rent Account for the period in question.

Once you have received the breakdown details of who is paying what and who is taking money from where, then you will be in a better position to dispute, if necessary, any missing money and ask for it to be refunded or to be put against the rent arrears.

Maybe someone more legally minded than me will be along to help further.

Best of luck

Hi understanding, I write mainly about my peculiar take on life but also some serious stuff. Google babybear3333 as well

I have read some of your blog, write on!

A stalker with hacker capability is a real nightmare!

I’m not a ‘techie’ by any means so this is just my personal view but if threats persisted after scanning and quarantine then I would be looking at further options.

Wary that my system was compromised, I would purchase a new hard drive and install from scratch, that is my preference but the cost of a hard drive relates to the age of the system and the cost of replacement by someone with technical know-how. New Hard drives can start from around £30 online.

If replacing the hard drive is not an option then perhaps there are some other ways to check what is going on with your system.

The following suggestions are all FREEWARE or FREE-To-Use software as far as I know.

One of the first things I would suggest is to use a port checker to ‘probe’ your system for vulnerabilities. A favourite of mine has been ‘Shields Up’ written by an independent programmer many years ago in response to the shoddy software then available for security. The link is: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 and you should click the ‘proceed’ button and follow the online help and instructions.

If for any reason you feel you need a more immediate solution, maybe something like the ‘Emergency Toolkit’ from another established and recognisable proprietor of A-squared malware scanner, Emisoft, has provided. Before extracting the zip-file, check with your usual virus scanner if it is safe to open.

Please read the ‘Read Me’ notes first before use. The file is big, around 95 MB and can be downloaded for free from: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek/

There is other freeware software available from Emisoft at this link:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/

Other on line scans have been provided elsewhere in this thread. However I will say that one piece of software, 'CCleaner, is a good tool to have on your system. It cleans browser files like history, temporary internet files and cookies etc in one click. It can also clean registry files while allowing you to back up the registry before change. The link for download is: http://www.piriform.com/ with full information on how to use.

Other software which may prove to be useful is ‘Spybot Search & Destroy’ which is a little aggressive perhaps but can be found at this link: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

If any real technical people are about, maybe they will be able to offer more suggestions or even better solutions than my ‘layman’ efforts.

Hello, Vic,

I think you will need a solicitor. I also think you will need a date as to when the council took the land and a search in the land registry should supply this.

However I feel you really need a solicitor who specialises in this kind of thing as I understand Scottish Law is different to English Law in some respects.

Here is a link to the Law Society of Scotland

http://www.lawscot.org.uk/

Sorry I can’t advise you further, maybe some legal-minded person will come along who will be able to help you more.

Good luck,

understanding

Hi ya, Ruby,

Although you do not say which department sent you the letter initially, my first suggestion would be to write a recorded delivery letter to all departments concerned.

Explain the situation as it has happened and supply each of them with full information as you have it, i.e. dates and names of whom you spoke with in telephone conversations as well as in person (if you have it) and what was said.

Ask them each to supply you with a full breakdown of the account including all payments made as well as full details of amounts being taken from the account and by whom. At the very least, you can demand the account be adjusted with the money put towards your arrears once you have received this information.

Even if they get in touch with you beforehand to your satisfaction, I would urge you to get a statement from them detailing exactly what money have been taken off the account and where it has gone as this will be your evidence in the event of something going wrong in the future.

Good luck, I hope my advice is helpful and please let me know the results.

understanding

^ Exactly. If indeed the benefits dept haven't updated your claim in 6 years they may be paying an amount different to that which you are entitled. Having people on your council tax bill who no longer live there is also pretty bad because it means those people are legally liable for a property which they have no connection to anymore.

Yes, Nobnob, I think that is the problem which means they never took on board my telephone calls asking them to delete the names from the C.T. Benefits Award which affects the amount of my C.T. liability.

And that itself is a problem. I have gone through every single C.T. demand and roughly checked the C.T. Benefit Award for the same periods and there is a common theme – overpayment from the benefit award department to the council tax department. The first time it happened they had the names of all residents and full details of income yet they still applied a single person’s discount – this meant they applied this discount when paying the council tax department.

This went on DURING the investigation I started and was only resolved through legal and councillor intervention. At the meeting I held with ‘top’ officials of the council, I was led to believe they accepted full responsibility. Yet when I received the result of that meeting in writing, the onus was shifted on to me in some respects.

So although my complaint was upheld in some respects, it was clearly shown there was a doubt on their behalf in my case on whether I had complied fully and openly and they told me that was the end of the matter as far as they were concerned, despite there continuing to be problems with the C.T. office and C.T. benefits awards office after this.

This went on for some time when in the end I gave up and paid what they demanded because they simply wore me down.

Now, this time, it seems that I am at fault a little due to not opening up all my mail this year as and when they arrived. I won’t go into full details but I will say circumstances really did get in the way of my attending to other things due to a fire, electric hazards, leaks and the loss of hot water and central heating so it’s been a real hectic year so far.

While searching for the documents involved in this case, I found a reminder from the C.T. which points to them acting properly in the respect of following procedures except of course the names on the council tax award are wrong.

So now I am digging through legislation for the council tax and benefit claims to see what it states exactly because I still believe they should have acted on information as and when they were given it.

For example, I have learned that as soon as they are notified by the person liable for C.T. of a change, they are meant to issue a letter/notice confirming the changes in writing.

They haven’t issued any letters regarding the changes until now so the benefit overpayment happened BEFORE I pulled them up on supplying the wrong informtion, although looking at one award it is clear they changed their minds from one month to the next in respect of whether there was an overpayment or not. I suspect this could be due to my alerting them again of supplying wrong information on the C.T. Benefit Award.

I will add that when you ring them they state they are two different departments and information may not have gotten from one to the other, or so they have told me this year because they made a big deal about which department did I call. There is only one telephone number given on the council paperwork and when asking to speak with someone concerning C.T. and the wrong names being put down, I cannot say for sure which department I ended up talking to at any given time until this year when I was adamant they change the information and put it right.

It is all very confusing due to the way the Council Tax is paid (when the liable person is claiming Council Tax Benefit) – directly from the Benefits Award department. Obviously I have no control over what is paid or what isn’t as it goes from one department to another and there is never any breakdown of dates of amounts paid or why, which I believe would make it difficult for even an accountant to follow what money is owed, if anything, and who is liable for same.

Well, I shall have to wait and see what will happen and shall return to gleaning whatever information I can from the legislation.

Hugs,

understanding

I agree, I think you do need to go down in person, ask to speak someone more senior. After 6 years ... well, there's something rather frankly wrong about how your claim is being dealt with. Either way, from what you are saying, there appears to be something very fundamentlly wrong with record keeping at a serious level, as it may not be just you that's affected by this.

Hi, Cartaphilus,

How are you? I have been busy trying to sort out a new printer as my old one couldn’t handle the strain of photocopies, lol.

To be sure there is something wrong somewhere and I suspect they are shifting the blame on to me. They have tried to do this before when I first moved into the property where they issued a Magistrates Summons whilst in the MIDDLE of my investigation as to what was going on and despite my appeals to do so which led to solicitors etc. Not a route I particularly wanted to go down again but it seems I may have no choice.

I am certain they will be extremely economical with the truth as they have done before and it will be a case of my word against theirs.

If you are querying the charge then they should put a hold on your account to prevent recovery action whilst the query is in place. This is why I think it's really important to go down there with full details and copies of everything you have, and ask to speak to someone higher up in both council tax and benefits. You've had no luck with letters and phone calls in the past. I agree, it sounds like a massive lack of communication between the two departments here and this is something they need to get worked out.

 

If the benefits department have not updated their records on you for 6 years that's not good. IIRC they should review your claim regularly, something like every few months, to make sure that no changes have occurred. This usually involves asking you to send in bank statements etc. Additionally, if your other benefits have changed during this time then it's likely that would have affected how much council tax benefit you are entitled to.

 

As for whether they've issued the summons illegally, I don't know but I really think you need to get down there and sort this out because it's pretty messy.

Hello, Nobnob,

I have been in touch with the council with a query and am waiting to hear from them now.

ooh I can see my posts

Well this morning I am editing the S.A.R. slightly, I hope it is worded correctly and also the request for breakdown of costs, which should give me a week to prepare for the court summons. I shall also post a registered letter to the council with my legal request for breakdown of costs for the charges brought onto the summons.

I shall also read up the info you kindly provided, Cartaphilus and certainly the ombudsman will be a step in this action I intend to take against the council.

Today I shall be searching through ten years of files and phone receipts to check the dates I phoned the council tax offices so shall look in here when I can.

Hope someone can advise me on this situation.

That article is an eye-opener, dx100uk.

More than one million women and 900,000 men are stalked in the UK every year, according to the British Crime Survey.

It took almost two million victims BEFORE the CPS decided to enter the 21st Century by producing guidelines.

Apathy is something that needs to be battled every day it seems to me, no matter where you are.

hello, babybear39,

I'm going to google you ^^

What genre do you write? I dabble a little here and there and now I hope to have time to write for real.

Oh, I am so glad it wasn't something serious, lottiesnan

Hot lemon water with a slice of orange for breakfast and a mustard hot water bath for the feet at night-time – the mustard bath used to be an old remedy for colds and flu during late 18th century apparently. I tried it once when I was a child, eager to see what would happen yet all I got was a horrible smell wafting up from the steam. I put in a whole tin of ‘Colman’s Mustard’ into the bowl of water – ewww.

whoohoo - I can be seen 8)

another good freeware software for the pc is ccleaner from periform. What it does is clean your browser (and even registry etc if wanted) of anything that could pose a threat after internet use.

http://www.piriform.com/

have a look see and try it out

pm me if you want, Cartaphilus and if you ever need an ‘ear’, well, I got two.

I enjoyed our 'chat' and thank you for showing concern over my situation.

Have a good night.

good idea - yeah I can't seem to post a message on the council forum all of sudden

timed out??? anyone see this message?

Hmm, seems I can type till the cows come home but am unable to see the posts.

I'm not sure what's going on - on one tab I can see my messages posted yet they appear to be mingling with others??? and yet on this one my messages (after commenting on seeing you here) appear to have vanished.

I would call this 'lag' but not sure what it is.

for some reason two messages bit the dust.

forgot what they were about now, something funny I guess. lol

Okay, there's that wierd timout triplicate thing ... everytime ... when I try to edit something, it's timing out, so I don't know if it's posted then when I look three or more have been posted.

Meh, I tried to respond and it got lost in the ether. I was just commenting on how something similar happened to me earlier today while posting.

Struggle is my middle name, never been lucky and always prepared for the worst no matter what. But I always hope for better and always strive to be equal to the task at hand.

Okay, there's that wierd timout triplicate thing ... everytime ... when I try to edit something, it's timing out, so I don't know if it's posted then when I look three or more have been posted.

I know, happened to me while posting earlier - like a hi-cup

Reason I mentioned councillor and LOG is because I feel you need a heavy hitter eg more authority from someone who they can't ignore and have to take notice of. If only to halt anything from going further. Getting screen glare for some reason, so finding it a bit hard at times to look at this background. No idea why, as I don't normally but could be because it's night, so my eyes are in 'night mode' (shrugs shoulders)

Rest your eyes, looking at the screen for hours can play havoc and strain them. And thank you for the link, it will help.

I was also thinking about the Local Government Ombudsman, as they would instigate an audit (I think) which would reveal where an error was made and bring it to light. For example, someone at DWP told me this information regarding something a while ago, an audit could be done to trace back, it would reveal who had handled what, who had entered what information. As you will already know, recording keeping of data should be kept up to scratch, but we know it isn't always.

 

Sorry, forgot the link!

 

http://www.lgo.org.uk/

 

It would also help if I got the name right as well wouldn't it.

Oh cool. thank you. {{{{{Hugs}}}}}

Hey, Cartaphilus,

How lovely of you to pop on here.

I had to giggle at the town being ‘totalled’ by the council due to the council not informing people they were changing systems simply because I imagined a town in darkness and the Major leading the town by candlelight to their new systems which weren’t working due to the council not paying the electric bill.

My imagination can run riot sometimes but seriously, how like the council to do something like that. They seem to get by with misinformation and lack of information thinking that’s okay to do.

To be honest I wouldn’t consider using any councillor round here simply due to my previous dealings with two of them and the others appear to be just as useless. For example, when told I had no central heating or hot water, one councillor told me I should be able to get a grant as there was a child under the age of sixteen at home. I followed the advice and was told that I had to be over 60 and even then may not be considered eligible.

Don’t get me wrong, the councillor was nice enough to listen while he was on my doorstep requesting votes but I never got any response to a letter I sent asking if there were other avenues to getting a grant for a central heating system.

Another councillor, in response to my requesting help due to something a benefits officer did, wrote to me (long after sending my letter) with apologies stating the ‘email’ I’d sent her got deleted.

As I had posted a letter and not sent an email, I didn’t bother following through and had already dealt with the benefits officer anyway by then.

For the most part I can cope enough but this summons is something that needs a little more brain power than I possess.

Thank you for posting here, it is heartening.

Yeah, I know the feeling of fear but it can also make the resolve to battle wrong-doing stronger.