council tax single persons discount review/experian,equifax etc

[millitant]

i have just received a letter stating that my local council are checking on people who are claming single persons discount on their council tax.

 

the council are using an external agency called capita local goverment services. now why does that name start to ring bells, tv licence for a start. (big brother again)

 

it states

 

DATA FROM OTHER SOURCES AND DETAILS OF CREDIT APPLICATIONS MADE AT YOUR ADDRESS WILL BE REVIEWED IN THIS PROCESS.

 

IT ALSO STATES A TELEPHONE INTERVIEW OF YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES MAY BE NECESSARY AS PART OF THE VALIDATION PROCESS.

 

for a start

 

where has the council authority to release my personel data to an outside agency, let alone do a check with the credit reference agency without my express permission

[Bang!]

As far as I know they buy a copy of the entire file covering their postcode area. I remember Edinburgh did it years ago and paid about £600 000 for the data. So there is no real credit search, but I would suspect it was a misuse of data under the DPA.

 

It rang up 'fraud' for...

 

Students living there.

students living away but still using parents address for safe mail.

People with mail diversions.

People working away/abroad and using friend/family/partners address.

People sticking with parents postcodes for better area parameter in credit applications.

Women escaping partners but now in hostels etc,

Landlords generating errors at their properties (never, or between lets) for utilities.

Vindictive credit applications.

 

One that did not apply to Edinburgh was...

 

Car insurance being paid up at rural (cheaper) postcodes.

 

Brilliant system really if your real target is to scare people who never thought of the above criteria!

[millitant]

DATA FROM OTHER SOURCES AND DETAILS OF CREDIT APPLICATIONS MADE AT YOUR ADDRESS WILL BE REVIEWED IN THIS PROCESS.

 

 

thats statement is ringing my alarm bells

 

this stinks of data faming with capita involved

Edited May 8, 2012 by millitant

[revshelp]

Its a fairly common practice for Council Tax Departments to outsource their "counter fraud" exercises, as its supposedly more cost effective and yields higher detection rates.

 

Its all part of a wider national initiative

http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/fraud/nfi/pages/default.aspx

[millitant]

i understand the reasoning for it but i am after STATUTE LEGISLATION that allows them to say , scour the credit reference files without your express permission

[millitant]

what about the Human Rights Act

 

RESPECT FOR YOUR PRIVATE AND FAMLY LIFE

 

The right to a private life means that you have the right to carry on your life privately, without government interference, as long as you also respect the rights of other people.

 

personal information about you (including official records, photographs, letters, diaries and medical records), should be kept securely and not shared without your permission,

Edited May 8, 2012 by millitant

[millitant]

Local authorities share information about ratepayers with other agencies in order to provide services and to prevent fraud.

 

goverment agencies may be. not commercial

 

i agree with this but what STATUTE LEGISLATION allow the local authoritu to use an outside commercial organisation, be it capita or the credit agency without my express permission

[assisted blonde]

The electoral role will tell any agency or private person who lives at the address, it is quite easy to then link the address to oither people, they may not do a credit search as such but the councilare right to establish who is living where as a numvber of people claim single person discount when there is more than one person living at the address.

They dont need statute to do this as I think the authority will come from the local government act (dont know where as i havent read it all)

[millitant]

:?:anybody got a link to the local goverment act

[millitant]

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

 

I AM GOING TO SEND THE COUNCIL THIS AND WOULD WELCOME COMMENTS

 

 

Dear XXXX XXXX Council

 

 

After receiving your letter today in regards to the council tax single persons discount review, i feel compelled to do a Freedom Of Information Act Request. Can you please tell me,

 

1/ By what statute legislation are you relying on to pass my personal data without my consent to an outside commercial agency. (CAPITA)

 

THE REQUEST ABOVE IS THE ACTUAL STATUTE LEGISLATION AND NOT CODES OF PRACTICE OR GUIDANCE

 

2/ By what statute legislation allows XXX XXXX Council or its agents access to my personal Credit Reference Files without my consent.

 

3/ By passing out my personal data to outside agencies, does XXXX XXXX Council receive any payment or remuneration by the recipient

 

4/ In section 1 of your letter, council tax single person discount review, am i obliged under statute legislation, and if so, what statute legislation, to divulge my contact telephone number or email address to XXX XXXX Council or its agents CAPITA.

 

5/ By what statute legislation are XXXXX XXXX Council in the above practices, are not in contravention of

 

Article 8 of the Human Rights Act

 

RIGHT TO RESPECT FOR PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE

 

The right to a private life means that you have the right to carry on your life privately, without government interference, as long as you also respect the rights of other people.

 

that personal information about you (including official records, photographs, letters, diaries and medical records), should be kept securely and not shared without your permission, except in certain circumstances.

 

REGARDS

Edited May 9, 2012 by millitant

[shadow2007uk]

Wow wished i had sent that to my council now .

U go for it ,would love to see there faces when they read it .

[millitant]

i will post up the response when i have it

 

they have 21 working days to comply

[Bang!]

I suspect they would get better results from Facebook. Although imagine being a facebook checker as an occupation!

 

You could add to your FoI request how much they paid for the info, and how much extra money it brought in (if any, as any gains are likely to be indirect so unassociable through scaring folk rather than directly). Asking how many people it caught is likely to be declined as 'administration of justice' the cop out used by the TV tax people also.

 

Asking for any warnings/caveats/complaints about their system might return something interesting too, especially if you have something to base it round.

[shadow2007uk]

Love it .. u do have something there they wont know what to do lol

[outlawla]

From a news article "Over 2,000 fewer people caught dodging council tax in past year"

"

Tax dodgers claiming a single person’s discount on council tax will be checked to see if they are still living alone. Around 26,000 of the 70,000 households in the borough claim the 25 per cent discount. Fines will be imposed on anyone found to be falsely claiming the discount

."

This triggered off a Freedom of Information Request:

 

2) "North East Lincolnshire Council utilised Experian’s Residency Checker to assist with the management and audit of its SPD (single person's discount) claims.

 

Experian processed all of the addresses currently claiming SPD, provided by the Council, through their extensive databases to return an indication of the number of adults residing at a property."

 

For all years from 2006 to Date, please supply the total amount North East Lincolnshire Council has paid companies such as personal data intruder "Experian" for spying on residents?

 

Or more specifically, money paid to Experian for processing addresses claiming Single Person's Discount, to return an indication of the number of adults residing at a property. Or, for North East Lincolnshire Council utilising Experian’s Residency Checker to assist with the management and audit of its single person's discount claims.

 

If there have been other companies contracted to do similar type of work, please also give details.

 

North East Lincolnshire Council's Response:

 

Payments made by NELC from 2006 to date for residency checks to assist with the management and audit of Single Person Discounts are as follows;

 

In 2007 a total of £31,535 was paid to Experian following a Single Person Discount review which was administered by NELC.

 

In 2011 payments totalling £57,290 were made to Northgate following a Single Person Discount review which was carried out by Northgate on behalf of NELC.

 

 

Further reading ….Over 100 local authorities have used Experian’s Residency Checker service since 2006 to prevent thousands of fraudulent applications for the single person discount on council tax….

[millitant]

but the question still remains

 

what statute legislation allows them to do it

 

my FOI request will settle this argument

[andydd]

Can I ask why you are spending so much time and resorces on this ?

 

Andy

[revshelp]

The Local Authority is likely to be using powers contained in the Local Government (Contracts) Act 1997 to outsource its functions to a private company. There are several "exemptions" in the Data Protection Act to allow the sharing of information such as your credit file, Section 29 is often quoted.

Edited May 9, 2012 by revshelp

[caledfwlch]

This is a newish thing introduced by the Government, though I cant recall if it even required Legislation.

 

The idea is, for example, if you are claiming JSA, they will check your credit file, and if they notice that your making large monthly repayments on a debt, or car finance, more than in theory someone on JSA, without savings "should" be paying, then they will assume you are committing fraud by working cash in hand or have undeclared savings and begin an investigation.

 

Attempting to accuse people of Single Discount fraud based on "Credit Applications" is going to open up a world of pain for Council's in my opinion, not least because the likes of Experian's Data is incredibly sloppy and innacurate.

[millitant]

Can I ask why you are spending so much time and resorces on this ?

 

Andy

 

questions need answering

 

1/ do the credit agencies record searches and update their own records on data subjects given by the local authority

 

2/ do capita retain and process the data given by councils for their own use, ie, tv licence,csa for example

[millitant]

The Local Authority is likely to be using powers contained in the Local Government (Contracts) Act 1997 to outsource its functions to a private company. There are several "exemptions" in the Data Protection Act to allow the sharing of information such as your credit file, Section 29 is often quoted.

 

 

i agree with sharing information through goverment departments as a counil,local authority is local goverment. that is not the issue

 

it is using outside private and commercial companies i have the problem with

[snowy101]

I have just got this letter & was wondering if there was any update?

[DollyDagger]

Councils are allowed to give private sector firms contracts to carry out council duties. Capita has contracts to run council tax services for a number of local councils and has adopted some very dubious ways of finding out whether you are entitled to a discount. These appear to involve wholesale maladministration but let that pass. Therefore Capita are in a sense acting as agents for your council. Capita run many government services and are said to be in the running for parts of the NHS. There is big money to be made, usually by cutting wages and so on.

 

If the letter tells you you are claiming a single person discount it is probably misleading. You cannot in law be in the positiion of claiming a discount on the basis that you are literally the only resident. Capita should have deducted 25% on the basis that you would be entitled to 25% on every day of the coming year, and it is possible to be entitled if there is more than one resident. What matters is that all residents except one are disregarded. This is why the nickname arose. Capita appear not to grasp this basic fact, as their web site and council web sites using Capita indicate.

 

There is a scandal here. You are probably suspected of fraud. They suspect that another adult is resident and they hope that the second adult isn't disregarded and that you actually owe them tax. The point of the phone call is to assess your honesty. They often use lie detectors which have been known to interpret distress at the whole process as sounding guilty.

 

What is being breached is your right to fair and accurate and clear information from your council.

 

Check your demand notice. By law it should explain the situations in which a discount may arise under Section 11 and your duty in law to tell the council if you are no longer entitled to a 25% discount but are only entitled to less discount or no discount at all. If it does not, this is further cause for complaint.

 

Credit reference companies use the full electoral register and some information derived from your financial transactions and all transactions linked with your address. They produce via computing estimates of how many people may live at your address which the council or Capita pay for. This is legal because it helps to prevent fraud. Capita is legally allowed to use personal data it has for this purpose. The credit reference agencies in theory use the full electoral register as agents for your council. The law forbids the council to use the electoral register except for statutory purposes relating to crime prevention and the detection of fraud and I think national security as well. Therefore they have to make this exercise look like fraud prevention and detection for it to seem legal which is why I think they claim they are reviewing or checking entitlement to a 'single person discount' which does not really exist. They have to make the duty to find out whether any discount applies sound like a duty to check you are not a thief, which is why they are telling you about this 'single person discount'.

 

It is clear that a great many people involved in administering this will suspect YOU of fraud if you have had one of these letters, on the basis that you might not be entitled, evidence whatever data was processed by the credit reference agency. They know that the computing throws up 'false positives' and I hope you are one! Because I would not wish to advise a tax cheat

 

 

 

 

i have just received a letter stating that my local council are checking on people who are claming single persons discount on their council tax.

 

the council are using an external agency called capita local goverment services. now why does that name start to ring bells, tv licence for a start. (big brother again)

 

it states

 

DATA FROM OTHER SOURCES AND DETAILS OF CREDIT APPLICATIONS MADE AT YOUR ADDRESS WILL BE REVIEWED IN THIS PROCESS.

 

IT ALSO STATES A TELEPHONE INTERVIEW OF YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES MAY BE NECESSARY AS PART OF THE VALIDATION PROCESS.

 

for a start

 

where has the council authority to release my personel data to an outside agency, let alone do a check with the credit reference agency without my express permission

Edited October 22, 2012 by DollyDagger

[outlawla]

This might be worth keeping an eye on:

 

Government suffers defeat in lords....

 

Lord Best, president of the Local Government Association, will on Tuesday propose an amendment suggesting that, rather than looking to poorer people to find the savings it seeks, councils should have discretion to reduce the discount for single people from 25 per cent to 20 per cent...…..Half of councils are proposing to set the minimum payment at 20 per cent of the full council tax or more, while about another quarter plan to set it at between 10 and 20 per cent.

[DollyDagger]

The thing to keep an eye on is Part 6 of the draft local audit bill. The government is about to take powers to itself to highlight people as potential discount frauds using statistical and probabilistic methods just like this, though the law is so vaguely drafted (by it would appear the Audit Commission who have pioneered this method of harassing people). The Information Commissioner's response was interesting. People should write to their local MPs asking them to support the Information Commissioner's response on the draft bill and then maybe we would get fewer people on this site reporting misleading letters and threats from their councils.

 

This might be worth keeping an eye on:

 

Government suffers defeat in lords....