Direct Earnings Artachment

[AlwaysAWoman]

Feeling very stressed tonight. I have messed up. Years ago we received housing benefit which we now know was overpaid. I think we owe about £2300. Anyway, I set up a payment of 50 pounds a month which was fine, but we have been massively struggling (like many) with costs. Couple of months ago I cancelled the direct debit as we had a huge car bill (I need the car for work, no other options) and had no money. My bank charges for direct debits so I canceled thinking I would ring up and sort.
I received a letter advising I had 2 weeks to ring (this arrived late in itself due to post I think). In all honesty, I am so exhausted, stressed with a very busy job and struggling with my mental health I forgot. I emailed today and they replied saying they have sent a direct earnings attachment to my employer last month. I have read this is usually 15-20% but can be 40% of net earnings. I just can't afford this. I am so angry at myself and upset I let this slip.
Does anyone know if there is anything I can do to lower the payments?
Thank you

So stressed couldn't get my title right clearly 🙄

I don't know whether this is the case for everyone but I used to run the payroll at my old company and we had one fella with an attachment of earnings. He phoned the council to try and get it lowered but was told no, it's a set percentage based on amount owed.

The percentage of deduction depends on how much you earn: https://www.bury.gov.uk/benefits/housing-benefit/overpaid-housing-benefit/housing-benefit-overpayment-direct-earnings-attachments#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20Direct%20Earnings,providing%20certain%20conditions%20are%20met.

Based on amount earned, not owed*

Deductions will be on a sliding scale - the higher the salary the higher the percentage.

Best thing to do is get in touch asap and ask if you can do an income and expenditure to negotiate an affordable repayment. Better still, see if a local debt adviser can help with this. They may have a connection with your local authority and be able to make contact with them on your behalf, and discuss all of the options if you are struggling, including checking if the overpayment is correct.

In future if you can't afford a payment it's really better to contact them before you cancel it - they get more aggressive if they think you are just refusing to pay when clearly there is a lot more to your situation than that.

Thank you all for your replies. Honestly I could kick myself. Slightly embarrassed work have been informed also, is it usually just payroll? I feel like I should have my shit together!

@AlwaysAWoman It is a set figure, we used to apply for them for council tax and the percentages are set depending on what you earn and they are eye watering. At any other time if you talked to the Council the answer would usually be why would we give you another payment plan when we can take it directly from your salary and guarantee payment?

Now with the CoL I think they are much more likely to be sympathetic and arrange a payment arrangement. For future, cancel anything else but never anything you owe to a council or especially council tax who can also do attachment to earnings.

Can you offer any payment now? Anything? A tenner? I would ring them urgently today. If they haven't already they will no doubt request and income and expenditure form to see what you have coming in and what you have going out. If you need help, local CAB would be a good start.

I work in Payroll. The attachment of earnings order goes to the payroll department & the letter is addressed Staff in Confidence. I've even been telephoned in the past to make sure that it is going to the correct person and in the old days of faxes that I would be by the fax machine when it was being sent.

My recommendation would be to not phone and offer to pay anything at this point.

Employers will have received a letter already giving total amount to deduct over X months and the employer cannot legally deviate from that even if an employee disputed any part of it. The last thing I'd want is to be chasing the council to update my employer with a reduced amount because you'd paid something over the phone. Or to end up with the full amount taken from wages and have to chase for a refund too.

@tweener I thought it was clear when I said we used to apply for them for council tax. I used to work in council tax and I would apply for attachment of earnings orders and I know our standard line would be we will not deviate from the attachment of earnings order considering how many chances the person has to pay the bill. But we are now in a CoL crisis where taking a lump sum of someone's wage could see them in rent arrears or without food.

Prepayment meters haven't been installed in lots of properties where they absolutely should be again because of the CoL crisis, I was talking to the chap who came to change my meter, it was just an old meter and needing upgrading. We were chatting because I also used to work for an electricity company, the company has a duty of care not to allow someone to get into more debt and lots of the companies aren't fitting prepayment meters so this isn't a normal situation.

Only the council can recall the attachment and I have recalled a couple but that was in extreme circumstances, as I have said the CoL crisis may be seen as extreme. From the Council's point of view they just had the payments stopped, no contact, nothing. Someone on £15k would have a take home pay of £1185 ish every month, from that post above for Bury they would take 11% of that money. You are damn right I think she should call them to agree a payment arrangement if possible.

Just wanted to update in case anyone found themselves in a similar situation. I managed to get the amount reduced to 50 pounds a month by contacting the Council directly who then contacted my employers. Much more manageable for me to pay each month.