Early Council Tax Collection Sparks Complaints
Hounslow Council apologises for direct debits being taken in advance of due date
An early collection of Council Tax from residents who pay by direct debit has angered local residents.
Hounslow Council has apologised to those affected by the collection which they said was due to a "system error".
Payments which were due on 2nd May ( May 1st is a bank holiday), were instead taken early today, April 28th.
Some people complained to chiswickw4.com that this could put people into financial difficulties. One local resident said that he had contacted his bank and was told that this was down to the Council requesting the debit.
He said: "The direct debit rules state: 'If the payment due date falls at a weekend or on a bank holiday the organisation is obliged to debit your account just after the due date, not before, unless they notify you in advance of a change of date'.”
He said that at 9.25am on Friday he had contacted the
Council tax helpline and was called back and told that the payments were
to be collected on the correct date and that the problem was with the
bank. However, his bank looked into the matter and said that the Council
had requested the payment early. The bank did not have control of it.
"Early collection of a direct debit could cause some residents significant
financial difficulties," he commented.
Councillor Steve Curran, Leader of Hounslow Council, said:“We
would like to apologise to everyone affected by the early collection of
some residents’ direct debit payments for council tax instalments.
“Due to a system error, direct debit payments for council tax instalments
that were due on 1 May 2017 were taken early, on 28 April instead of 2
May.
“We realise this may have resulted in inconvenience and in some cases possibly direct financial loss for those residents affected, and would like to reassure them that they will be reimbursed for any bank charges which may have been incurred due to the payment being taken early.
“We are contacting affected residents directly, but if you have incurred bank charges directly as a result of the early collection of your Council Tax instalment, please provide evidence of charges that have been incurred to customer.experience@hounslow.gov.uk. Liberata will then arrange for the money to be reimbursed.
“We would also like to assure those affected that only a single payment was taken, and that the next direct debit payment will only be taken on 1 June 2017.
“Last Friday’s early payment collection was due to an administrative error with Liberata’s payment system, which is now being addressed. The matter has been escalated to senior officers within Liberata and the Council, and measures are being implemented immediately to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
“In additional, the Council’s Director of Finance has requested assurance over this and other related business processes from an independent source and the Council’s Head of Audit and Investigations is advising on this.”
Residents who may have been affected by this and have suffered financial
loss as a result should email customer.experience@hounslow.gov.uk.
May 24, 2017
