To be COMPLETELY pi%%ed off with my council and their complete incapacity to read!!

[Alambil]

It's taken me 6 months to get them to sort out my council tax - I'm on full benefit and was exempt through my degree; they seemed to think I owed 9 grand!!

I have recently got the letters through to say that actually I am on benefits (like I've been telling and showing them them!) and I owe nothing; it's all been backdated etc.

Today however it seems like we are back to square 1... I just opened a letter saying I owe them more money!!

HOW ??! HOW THE F*CK can I owe them money when I'M GETTING COUNCIL TAX BENEFIT - full benefit, no contributions?!?!!

Honestly, I'm quite amazed that I haven't had a nervous breakdown yet; this truly is the next thing in a huge pile of other stuff... it's doing my head in!!!

They better be ready for a phone call on Monday morning!

I thought Council Chief Executive and other senior officer salaries were public knowledge anyway, not something which required FOI requests.

I say that as someone who works for a council but isn't on a 6 figure salary.

Sorry you're having such a hard time with Council Tax - I've had past problems with being held liable for Council Tax I had genuine reasons to think I didn't owe myself.

Don't think it's fair to insult all council workers everywhere on that basis though.

LewisFan I used to work in Council Tax so I will tell you what I know.

As a student you submit a student exemption certificate that you get issued through your college/uni etc at the start of each year. This then exempts you from being liable for council tax but you still get issued a bill which shows you what you would pay if you were not exempt. (I am assuiming that you are the only person in the property and it isn't a shared property and it is rented?)

The council tax department has all the finish dates for all the relevant courses and the exemptions are removed. A full bill is issued at this stage for the rest of the year. If you then receive council tax benefit this is then applied to your bill and again a bill is issued.

Have you ever received a bill when you were a student? If not they are in breach of council tax billing legislation.

All you need to do is tell them face to face (and you probably won't get to see a manager because they are usually off in meetings and doing things that means they aren't necessarily in the office) that you were a student, you can provide them with the details and they can check with the college/uni registration department.

On the benefit side they can check to see when you filled in your first claim. Some councils work as separate departments for council tax and benefits which means that council tax benefit is applied by the benefits section NOT the council tax department.

Don't ever say that you will charge for coming down to their offices there are no discounts off bills or any kinds of payments to compensate you as there is no money in the pot for this otherwise everyone else would have to pay a higher council tax bill to cover it.

Take the full name and telephone number of who you deal with, and get them to contact you by telephone or in writing to let you know how you are progressing. Keep a note of what they tell you and when. It is good to keep a diary of this type of thing.

What I will say is that this is the busiest time of year for council tax as they have just done their annual bill run and are dealing with lots of phone calls HOWEVER, this does not excuse this very lax and upsetting billing.

"All you need to do is tell them face to face (and you probably won't get to see a manager because they are usually off in meetings and doing things that means they aren't necessarily in the office) that you were a student, you can provide them with the details and they can check with the college/uni registration department.

On the benefit side they can check to see when you filled in your first claim. Some councils work as separate departments for council tax and benefits which means that council tax benefit is applied by the benefits section NOT the council tax department."

I've done that - five times over. The last time I took all the paperwork was in February 08 - apparently they'd lost all the other certificates from uni (3 years worth!) anyway, the stuff I took in Feb was signed and copied... I took the signed original home.

I've had bills all the way through but the bottom says "£0" obviously because I was exempt.

On the 1st March I had a benefit letter thingy through stating I get complete Housing benefit and Council Tax benefit; backdated to when I left uni and to cover for year start April 08.

The other day I get the next letter, dated 1st April, stating "void exemption", you owe us £32. I know this isn't a lot of money, but to me it is - it is over my weekly food budget!

How can it go from full benefit to void exemption over 4 weeks? I just don't understand; they HAVE all my details. They do not need any more paperwork...

I'm just SO sick of it and will go down on Monday to the office and see someone on the desk; it is a drop in thing they have.

elki - I don't owe it. There are students the country over that don't pay CT. The day I graduated, I'd warned them of it all and I sorted the forms in their office for CT benefit. They said that's all I needed to do.

Since then (18m ago) I've had NOTHING but hassle from them and contradicting letters almost monthly. This past 6m has been the real battle though (with the £9k thing) and I finally thought in March that it was sorted... seems not!

Now, I don't know about council workers all over, but the ones in my town ARE all stupid; each time I go there they say it's done and dusted.... then a few weeks later I'm back down there with MORE letters and MORE hassle. I even said to the last woman who had the courage to say "right, that's definitely all done..." "I doubt that a lot! See you next month!" and guess who was right?

Councils want you to go 'ok then, it's just not worth the row, here, have the God damn money.'

I'm sure of it.

How else can they be so stupid so much of the time? If there was one thing in this life I could chose not to pay, it'd be council tax, I've never known such a con (and little ones everywhere you turn when dealing with them) and it's such a waste of money. Come April they always do something stupid to the roads because they have so much left over money... is car tax not for this??? Why do we pay both??

Council tax is only part of a council's funding mumblesmummy - the rest comes from the government, from income taxes & indirect taxes like VAT & car tax. In theory this allows the government to even out the effects of different house values in different areas.
That's the theory anyway....