Council has "lost" my financial deatils

[trundlecat]

My husband & I both received a summons on Fri for non-payment of £78 council tax. I was fuming.

 

When we moved current accounts I forgot to set up the DD for council tax, my fault, slap on hand duly accepted. After receiving the “contact us in 7 days” letter I tried ringing them but always engaged. On day 3 I sent an email asking them to call me as I was eager to get the arrears paid & set up new DD. Someone called me the day after & took my debit card details for the arrears & my details to set up the DD. I was so chuffed it was sorted I sent them a thank you email immediately after the call.

 

When I finally got through to someone on Fri afternoon they started off by point blank denying receiving my 1st email (couldn’t find it on system). I told them this was rubbish as someone had phoned me & I had also sent a thank you email after the call. I sent another email (put a copy in the post too) stating my disgust & demanding the £37 charges removed. That afternoon I had 2 messages & a direct number left on my ansaphone from a very concerned sounding council official who asked me nicely to give him a call to get this “misunderstanding cleared up”

 

Now, I know I will get them to remove the charges but where on earth is the bit of paper with all my financial details on it? I know the woman was writing down what I told her as she repeated it all to me & also spoke the details out loud as she wrote them. How can the council be so blaze with peoples personal info? What is the point in my shredding all identifying paperwork when idiots like this have probably just screwed it up & thrown it in a bin or just “lost” it on a desk somewhere for all & sundry to find.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar lack of care & respect of personal data? I VERY angry about & want to complain but not sure what laws or guidelines they have breeched, can anyone please advise. I know the DPA states that all information should be kept & used responsibly but as the info never actually reached their system I don’t think I can make this stick.

 

All the best,

Trunny

[alanfromderby]

I am sorry to say that every day we discover more examples of letters, information, forms etc, being "lost". Add to this the number of telephone conversations that are not properly recorded, and it starts to look like a serious issue - one which the Information Commissioner perhaps needs to take an interest at some point.

 

Whilst it does not help you over this, my advice to anyone is to send all information by recorded delivery (or Special Delivery if sending important documents), and deal with issues in writing, rather than on the phone.

 

If you have to deal with a matter on the phone, write a letter to them confirming what has been discussed - in that letter request that they confirm to you that your interpretation is correct.

 

It may seem a long winded process, but it makes it extremely difficult for them to deny knowledge later.

[trundlecat]

Just spoken to the apologetic council guy, had the summons cancelled, costs removed, paid the £78 arrears, set up the DD & got his assurance that my info will not have been thrown out with the biscuit wrappers. I'm now about to write up the phone call & post it to them (thanks alanfromderby) as I don't wholly trust the court procedings will get cancelled so I need an official record of the call.

 

I think my best way forward is to give the local paper a call. Sadly, our council is more likely to act on bad publicity in the local rag than instructions from any official body I could report them to.

[Seminole]

Do not take his word for it that the court summons has/ will be cancelled. Demand that he confirms this in writing and then ring the court to confirm. It's belt and braces but there is no reason to believe that these people will do what they say they will do.

[trundlecat]

Phoned the court & apparently the case doesn't get cancelled as such. On the morning the hearing is due the councils representative will say they no longer wish to proceed & that's it....... why do I have a very bad feeling about this?

 

I've sent a write up of the telecon to council guy & asked him to confirm by letter that it's accurate.

[cheddar]

That is correct it will be presented (on the long long list of people) and when it gets to you and the others they have dismissed (as there are always errors) they will tell the court not to proceed.

[trundlecat]

Thanks Cheddar, feel better about it now I know what they told me is normal procedure

 

Would feel better still if the council had done their job properly in the 1st place & none of this had happened.

[trundlecat]

This topic was closed on 09 March 2019.

If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there.

If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened.

- Consumer Action Group