To want to strangle the council tax woman with her own telephone flex (apologies in advance if you dislike bad language!!)

[lucyellensmum]

Its times like this that you wish you were telepathic!! Thats not the word is it, telekinetic? Pedants??

Anyway - We are behind on our council tax (as usual) and we arranged to pay the remaining for last year £50 a month. We havent done this yet as DP never received a letter confirming this, as promised. I tried to pay it today at the council offices but they no longer accept payments and you need a post office card. Fair enough, i didn't think we had one but we do apparently, DP forgot to tell me it came . But anyway, i cheerfully said to the woman on the phone, that id been down to pay it today but couldn't as i didnt have a card. But its OK because we have one and i'll go and pay for it tomorrow. I mean, you would think that would be ok wouldnt you - not good enough she said, it must be paid today as they are getting towards the end of the year. Well i am not about to trek back to the post office with a fractious and tired two year old. I said "no, i'll pay it in the morning" she said "it must be paid today, im not prepared to accept that" I said, thats the only offer you are going to have.

She spoke to me like an idiot, its like i choose to be in arrears with everything, i choose to have to avoid the phone and letters becuase im scared of who will want money i don't have next. I do that to be difficult you know, and piss people off.

It turns out we have been entitled to council tax benefits, but not once during all our difficulties paying did they suggest we might be entitled to this benefits. So i said to the woman, well i would imagine you will be paying this money back to me because we have been entitled to benefits and i have medical back up so thats ironic isn't it. You know what she said - "not if i have anything to do with it". I'm sorry, i hate this word but it feels appropriate, the woman was a CUNT!!!!

I AM NOT STUPID, I AM NOT A SPONGER, I AM NOT TRYING TO DODGE PAYING, IVE BEEN ILL, MY DP HAS BEEN EARING 7K PER ANNUM FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS (because he has had to have so much time off to look after me and DD)AND YES, I SHOULD HAVE REALISED WE WERE ENTITLED TO BENEFITS BUT I ASSUMED WE WEREN'T (DP self employed) AND MY HEAD WAS TOO BUSY BEING FRIED BY PND AND BEREAVEMENT THAT FILLING IN THEIR FORMS AND STUFF WAS THE LAST THING ON MY MIND - only just got tax credits and child benefits sorted and DD is 2.5. But im not fucking stupid and being spoken too like i am makes me feel murderous

hmmm, was expecting a mixture of YANBU and you are being a psychotic bitch - it seems i can muster no interest.

Write to them regarding payment of benefits. Write to the CEO of the council. Write to your MP and if THAT doesn't work, go to the papers...

I truly sympathise, I have fought for benefits year after year and finally won after having to give them FOUR copies of one bit of info they said they never got. What they meant was, they lost it - but oh no .. me handing it in and SEEING the woman file it wasn't good enough - I didn't bring it in the first place (WTF!)

There is never an excuse for someone speaking to you like that. The first part where she was saying not they couldn't wait was because she assumed you were just making excuses and didn't plan to pay at all. They must get a lot of that so it's understandable.

The "not if I have anything to do with it" is just plain wrong.

It sounds like you do need to get a few things sorted though. You might want a word with whatever benefits advice places you have in your area. There might be more you are entitled to.

You need to go to the CAB and sort your benefits out. If you are in a financial pickle because your DP and yourself cannot manage to fill in the claim form, it could be construed as a form of stupidity.

If you care enough about how you were treated ( and you were spoken to rather badly) then i urge you most strongly to make a formal complaint.

You need to go to the CAB and sort your benefits out. If you are in a financial pickle because your DP and yourself cannot manage to fill in the claim form, it could be construed as a form of stupidity.

If you care enough about how you were treated ( and you were spoken to rather badly) then i urge you most strongly to make a formal complaint.

I work for a council and there are unfortunately some people who feel it is acceptable to treat customers (because you are a customer) like that. You must complain because if you don't that person won't be reprimanded and will treat more people in the same way. Ask to deal with supervisor next time and if necessary go to the chief executive or whatever they have in your area.

Try and get sorted with them though because a lot of councils use debt collection agencies and you really don't want to go down that route!

I agree with everyone else. CAB should be able to help you with the benefits, and (if you have the energy/strength after everything that you're going through) it would be good to make a formal complaint. You are in the right, you are trying your hardest to pay, and it is none of her business whether/how you are entitled to help. Really on your behalf that you were treated so badly.

Please complain...in writting and ask to see her superior about this.....Hope you feel better...big hug...

Kilo, yeah i guess you are right, if we cannot fill the form in - but seeing as my title is Dr, i think that probably rules it out! It was more a case of not thinking we were entitled so not asking for the form in the first place.

There is not much to pay of last years and this year we will definately receive the benefits, despite what the sanctimonious cow says. I will of course be attempting to get a back payment of benefits. This woman said that simply not knowing we were entitled isnt a valid reason . It was adequte for them to send me a big fat cheque once before because i didn't realise that i was entitled to rebate due to being a student. All that took was a phone call too - I just said to her, well, don't worry your head about whether i'm entitled to benefits, i will pay the outstanding balance tomorrow, so you have done your job and promptly hung up!

CAB would be good to see if there are more benefits that you're entitled to, by the way. I'm sure that you're more than capable of filling out a form, but it sometimes helps to know the system to ensure that the claim is geared towards what they want to hear as well.

Lucyellensmum are you just having a really really shit week?

what a bitch. She needs to remember that it is people like you and I that pay her wages.. There is no need to be rude, if i was rude to one of my customers then I would get a warning or worse.

dont put up with it, write a complaint..

Message withdrawn

we are slowly sorting the benefits out, will start to get our tax credits this week i think and that will help alot. We are hoping that DPs business is going to take off and then we wont be on a low income anymore. Also DD will be starting school next year so that gives me scope to go to work full time if i need to. Quite frankly, with the way things are just now, it wouldnt pay me to get a part time job because after child care and losing the tax credits, i would be worse off - that can't be a good thing can it?

I just get sick of the way, simply because we are having financial difficulties (which stem pretty much from my illness if i am honest with myself) we get treated like second class citizens and spoken to like shit be all and sundry. I am sure we would be much better off if we were to simply play the system and have everything paid for us (i know of too many people who do this) we would be far better off than we are now. But we have struggled for two years with no help from anyone (apart from my mother, without whom we would have lost the house). Its just so frustrating. So i wont be complaining about the bitch from the council, because im sure i will be taking it from someone else tomorrow, and the next day, etc etc....

I didn't ask to get PND to the point where i can barely function sometimes, i didn't ask for my father to die eight weeks after my daughter was born. I didn't ask to get gallstones and not be able to look after my own baby because i was in so much pain. But it would seem to anyone official that i should just be able to shrug all that off..

But to whoever asked, im having an OK week as it goes - DD and I have just planted some sunflower seeds and dug over the garden, its a lovely sunny day so i am not going to let some jumped up bitch on the end of the phone get me down. These people just like to feel important, and if being superscillious (sp)to those who are down on their luck is they only way they can do it, well you have to feel sorry for them don;t you.

thanks millie, i will let it go, i will feel vindicated when they do have to back date the council tax benefit . I have to say that our local council tax offices are the epitome of inefficiency. They have sent out court orders to us in the past when we are up to date with our payments, had to admit it was their fault - can't remember the exact circumstances. They contributed in no small way to the deterioration of my fathers health by insisting that they were £1000 in arrears and insisting on completely unreasonable payments to clear the debt. My parents were going without food in order to pay this off (they didnt tell me at the time, i guess they were embarrased - annoying thing was, i would have been able to pay it off for them!) Then one day my poor old dad came back from making what he thought was the last payment, only to be informed that he was £1000 in credit and the council had made a clerical error . My mum said he was as white as a ghost!! It wasn't long after this he had his first heart attack - i do beleive the stress contributed alot to this. They had to battle to get the money paid back as the council simply wanted to credit their accounts - no apology, nothing!

So as you might imagine, my patience runs very low with this particular group of wankers officials.

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if repeating advice.

You may be able to get some Council Tax Benefit for a period before you make your claim if you could have claimed earlier. You can get backdated Council Tax Benefit for up to 52 weeks if you can show you have a good reason for not claiming earlier, for example, you were given wrong advice. You also have to show that you were entitled to Council Tax Benefit throughout the period of backdating ? that you were responsible for paying Council Tax, and your income was low enough.

Have you been claiming working tax credit and child tax credit? What about housing benefit?

thanks freckle, we are just waiting on the tax and child benefits. We own our own house so obviously no housing benefits. I suffered from post natal depression (still do), i have medical letters to prove this. Will use that to back up my claim, has to be worth a shot though doesnt it.

you could still be entitled to help with mortgage payments so try for the housing benefit. MIL and FIL managed to get some help. it wasn't that much but was better than kick in the teeth. i would put in a complaint esp since by the look of things they don't know their a* from their elbow.

LEM, I really would urge you to make a complaint to the council about how this woman treated you. The next person she treats like that might not be able to deal with it as well as you have.

I also work for a council and I know that "customer services" can be one of the hardest things to get right (for some staff, anyway). But service users/customers/etc are entitled to be spoken to and otherwise dealt with with respect and consideration.

I work in similar job to this woman and her attitude is TOTALLY unreasonable. I would never dream of speaking to anyone like that - and I get some fairly severe provocation .

What an appalling attitude. You certainly should complain.

Glad you didn't let her spoil your day.

Yeah YANBU. Council tax people are horrible. I spoke to two nasty women on the phone last week because we're in a similar situation (due to their dodgy rules which change every two minutes to get more money out of people).

You should report it and the time of the phone call, and her name if you can remember it. Though I assume they think they're above that.

In my experience all council customer service staff (edinburgh and west lothian in my case) are f*cking dimwits and liars... you almost always have to wait about an hour to get through to the bastards only to be greeted by a monotone, insulting and impatient twit who sighs after everything you say......can feel blood pressure rising...........