Council Tax Arreas I'm being forced to pay when Universal Credit caused the error.

[Mammabear8120]

I'm pulling my hair out. I informed Universal Credit via my journal of my eldest daughter moving in with me temporarily for 7 days in December 2019. I then went on and informed them again 7 days later she had moved out - again on my journal. I can see both entries in my journal. I got a letter in March this year (over 2 years later) asking for info of my eldest daughters income, if she's in education to provide proof etc. I was like what? She got her own flat after moving out of my house in 2019 after staying 7 days with me. I rang the council tax department who advised nobody had told them she had moved back out. I've been going back and forth with this and council tax (even though I've sent them evidence) are saying I have to pay these arrears of just over £400 over the next 12 months. I can barely afford food let alone pay back over £400 arrears I didn't cause! I've been given a section 21 notice on my rental property to move out because my landlord is selling the house to his friend who wants to move into it. I have less than a month left to move out and there is nowhere for me to move to. I can't take this on top of all I've already got going on. Can anyone advise me on what I can do about these arrears?

Surely they would owe you as you did not get 25% single adult discount for that period. What is the arrears/overpayment from ? Think you have to advise council separately to DWP though.

You need to stay put in the house. Sadly this is not great for the landlord but if you don't you will be considered to be intentionally homeless and you will not get any help. Let the council know you have a section 21 eviction notice and they will tell you what you need to do. They may be able to house you depending on area/need but they will be able to help you with a deposit / guarantee for a private let if that will help you.

In terms of the Council tax, write to them clearly stating when your daughter stayed with you and when she moved out. Ask them to recalculate your bill based on that information. You should be paying less assuming you are the only adult with her not there. They should be able to out it right retrospectively.

Final option is to talk to CAB or other advice centre. They might be able to help you negotiate payment or seek charitable support - for example Severn Trent water used to have a fund to support its area residents with utilities/Council arrears. Remember though that council tax is one they can act on quite quickly. it is considered a priority debt so don't let it drift.

Did you only advise UC of this or the council tax department as well ? Because you really can't rely on UC to let council tax know of changes as they are two separate benefits. To be honest for her being with you for seven days, it is just like a relative visiting, I would not have let them know at all as it was just very temporary.
Have you spoken to CAB to see what they advise?
You really need to establish how the arrears has come about. Unfortunately in my experience, council tax is the benefit which is the hardest to get any real explanation over.

Re the arrears, write to your MP, sometimes they can help get things moving to the right people to sort out & help. Got to be worth a try while you also look to see what else you can do.

Did you know she was only going to be there for 7 days or did you think it would be longer. I wouldn't even class that as moving in just having a relative to stay for a week.

No it was meant to be for a few months otherwise I wouldn't have told them.

For future reference, writing a message on your journal is not reporting a change. When you want to report a change like this go to 'report a change' on your account and choose the appropriate option 'who lives with you.'

Also as someone else said departments don't communicate well with each other, so you would need to inform each place (UC and council tax) separately.

Are you sure the changes (adding and removing) were done on your UC account? If an agent saw your journal and kindly made the change on your behalf then they would do this via logging into your side of the account and reporting it as you would if you'd reported it. A blue text would then show up in your journal history stating something along the lines of 'change to who lives with you' then you can click into it and see what the changes were, same as after you report the change yourself.

Also how old was your daughter at the time you said she'd moved in, and did you report her as in education? As it's a different business if you reported her as in non advanced education and her being 19 or younger than her either being older than that or you reporting she was not in non advanced education at the time.

She was 18 and not in education at all - she was working part time and waiting for a flat of her own after breaking yup with her boyfriend.

Yes I reported is as 'report a change' both times. I find both departments blame each other and in the meanwhile stuck in the middle, with the arrears.

Council tax is dealt with by your local council though, not DWP. They're not different departments, they are separate organisations.

Discretionary housing payment? You can also get them for council tax arrears but make sure its only 7 days worth that your paying

You can't claim DHP for council tax.

If both changes were reported correctly on UC, then at the end of the assessment period the changes were reported in, the info that's synced with council tax goes to them. I know the award you receive on UC is sent as council tax needs that for deciding whether you get a reduction on council tax, etc. Not sure what else is sent.

There's no action done by anyone on UC for it, the system does all that itself.

About the only way this would be caused by UC is if for some reason there was an error with someone else you declared when you removed your daughter (the task that would pop up on their end would then list everyone you stated was then in your household. So eg you had 3 kids and adult daughter. First report a change would state all of them from date of change you input. Second would state 3 kids.) If no one lived with you after daughter left this would be a non issue as no agent work would be needed. If second task was verified their end, then all definitely squared away on UC side of things.

Do you have confirmation from council tax the info definitely came from UC? Wondering as with the time delay it sounds like a fraud referral they're finally getting around to after covid.

And may want to check your daughter definitely updated her employer and any benefits, etc with her current address and doesn't have your address listed.

(Just to reiterate others, dwp and local authority share only minimum info and always best to inform everyone who needs to know of any change).

www.stepchange.org/debt-info/council-tax-arrears.aspx

Try this? They do have the ability to write off the debt you just have to ask in the right way and prove you cannot afford it

@tattychicken Universal credit forms part of housing benefit and they share information to the council tax department. As an example, my claim changes a lot due to different things and i get a new CT letter of entitlement every 2-5 weeks because every time my claim changes they get informed to redo my entitlement. Yes they are different companies so to speak but they still share info between eachother same as carers allowance and a few other benefits

@Seraphinesupport universal credit and housing benefit are different. UC is administered by DWP. HB is administered by your local authority. You get Housing Costs within your UC, but you do not get "Council Tax Costs" within UC. You have to claim for that separately from your local authority, often called Council Tax Reduction.

@tattychicken yes i know i was a call advisor for UC but what im saying is communication happens between them. between the local authority and UC for housing related things.

Absolutely, for housing costs and matters impacting on that, but not for CTX changes. Why would you report a change re CTX to UC when UC doesn't have anything to do with CTX or CTX reduction?
OP can you screenshot your journal where you mention your daughter moving in and moving out and email it your CTX team, explaining you thought you had reported it and this is the evidence?
Also, are you claiming Council Tax Reduction to help with your bill, separately to any Single Person Discount you might be getting?

Go to your local MP with this. Hopefully be able to sort it out for you.

Please go to citizens advice
They are brilliant with this
They have a number to ring we don’t have
I had a problem where they said I owed over £2K but I didn’t! and was so relieved when they sorted it out for me