neighbour and underpayment of council tax relief letter

[Guest]

Am a bit baffled, as many will know from previous posts I have a neighbour who cannot use the internet and my daughter or myself occasionally find advice for her.

 

She had her daughter and grandchild move in with her in June this year, and advised the council of this, she had an updated rent and council tax bill and payment arrangement. This was all done in June. Yesterday she had a letter saying she had been underpaid by £193 on council tax relief and it showed on her account now as this. The letter states that this is due to a recalculation. After trying all morning to get through to the office they said her council tax had gone up but so had her benefit and there wasn't any difference, well not much, new bill in the post..............

 

Never had this before. Why would they be recalculating when no further changes have happened. They are waiting to move but this wouldn't affect anything yet.

[estellyn]

only thing that comes to mind is loss of single person discount and subsequent hb increase to cover?

[Conniff]

Get that statement in a letter Ruby. Next year or sometime, she might just get a call to attend an interview under caution because she has been claiming above her allotment.

[Guest]

well Connif its a total mess, the office seems to be a shambles. After spending hours on the phone literally to get through to anyone again and question the bill of £300 plus that arrived after the letter, she was then told "oh no its been looked at again its now £134, sorry mistake".....the bill for the £134 hasn't yet arrived.............the council tax office say that the letters and emails all went to HB first on 2nd june, and they didn't pass it on to them until 19th September, although letters were received from both HB and CTR with new rent details and no change in CT.....

 

This is the same office who breached data protection with me on 3 occasions......its a real mess in there methinks.