stupid school have wrongly charged me for school dinners...

[mumatron]

and apparently there is nothing I can do except pay it.

£271.

My dc changed schools a year ago, a few weeks later I had a letter from the local council addressed to 'parents of DS' with a bill for the above amount.

obviously I phoned to query it, the man from the council said he would look into it. I also called the school who apologised and said it must have been an error on their part.

My ds had been in the school for 4 years and had never had dinners, I have never qualified for the free dinners scheme.

since then I have periodically had letters threatening baliffs etc, each time I call the council I am told it is sorted.

Friday I came home from work to find a hand delivered letter from a baliff saying they will be coming on 09/03/2012 to remove goods. This is the second time this has happened. Called the council again and have just been told that after speaking to the school the debt is actually mine and as they have invoices I have no option but to pay it. I can make an appointment with the school to see the invoices they have. what good is that going to do? unless they have pictures of him eating £271 worth of dinners.

I should also add the school never once sent a letter home from school to say that there was any amount outstanding, or that they had needed to give him dinners for any reason.

Any suggestions as to where the hell I go with this?

TIA

tantrum I definitely had no letter saying about a court date. I stupidly just took the councils word for it that it was sorted. I wont make that mistake again. I have made sure to ask for name and ext numbers from now on.

Baliff doesnt answer calls after 3pm so will have to call him in the morning.

thanks for the help all.

Some bailiffs aren't really bailiffs they're debt collectors, which isn't the same thing, (debt collectors don't have court orders.) If I was you I'd find out precisely who this bailiff is, what authority he has, who he works for and what his instructions he has.

Things I wouldn't do.
Not let him onto my property, drive, front garden, etc
Not let him into my house

And if I found out that he wasn't a bailiff with the requisite court order I'd complain to all local education officials and my school board of governors about being hassled by an ordinary debt collector (which is what he would be if he had no court order) over school dinners.

And I'd be furious.

Jeeez. It's actually quite scary how furious I am on your behalf. What cheeky bloody bastards!

I would phone the school and the council, and tell them that since they are threatening you with a bill that has nothing to do with you, they have put you in an impossible position and you'll be contacting the press. Tell them that this has caused untold stress and that since your son absolutely did not have school dinners, you will not be paying.

I must have PMT as I am on your behalf!

Just to add, it's up to them to prove you owe the debt, not you to prove that you don't.

Whatever you do, do not pay!

Then you would be accepting it is your debt and it will make it much harder to sort out later.

You say you have DCs but the bill is only for one child. Ask them why on earth you'd buy 169 dinners for one child, but none for the other?

Don't pay it. It will look like an admission of guilt and once they have the money they will take forver and a day to rectify the situation and pay it back to you. You will probably end up having to take them to court.

Is there a chance that there is another child in the school or LEA with the same name?

Woman from council and school are not available to talk to until tomorrow so I I can't really do much more.

It's all so frustrating.

By the looks of things it is a proper baliff with a court order :(

They hand posted letter has a warrant number on it.

Arse.

hilly exactly! Dd was in the same school for 2 years and yet there is no bill for a single dinner for her.

hilly exactly! Dd was in the same school for 2 years and yet there is no bill for a single dinner for her.

Ensure that your house is secure when you are not home (they can enter via an open window or unlocked door) and do not under any circumstance allow them entry.

Are the school claiming that you filled in some sort of authorisation for the dinners? Can they produce it? The school have fed this information to the council based on either their own fabrication or a mix up with another child.

Ask the school for the form you signed initially requesting school dinners for your son. For both my DC (different schools) I had to sign a form and provide dietary requirements etc. which the school would have filed in their records.

I am furious on your behalf.

Can you get some legal help? Sounds like you might need a solicitor. Legal aid society?

So let me get this straight school says you owe for 169 dinners? So they will have dinner registers completed by the teacher showing your child's option for the day or week as dinner as opposed to packed lunch. Ask whoever deals with dinners in the office to send you copies if these along without the supposed invoices. Schools should always keep all registers be it dinner or otherwise for I think it's 6 years after the child leaves.don't let them fob you off. The bailiffs can't take anything if you're not in and he must have a copy of the court order. Speak to your local county court they can tell you if they've issued any warrants you can explain to the staff that you want to make a defence against the ccj as you have never been served.this should stop the bailiffs and give you a chance to get all the paperwork together. DON'T PAY ANYTHING THAT IS ADMITTING LIABILITY AND YOU WON'T GET THE MONEY BACK.

I didn't know that about the register, that's something else to ask for tomorrow.

I plan on phoning the courts at 9am in the morning and the school straight after.

If I don't get anywhere I'll start emailing people/asking to see headmaster etc.

Thanks again all.

Op

If you call soneone take notes if the conversation and immediately email thereafter saying where you got to. You must keep a record of what is said.

I am serious about copying in the chair of govrr

Governors and the director of children's services. You need to broaden the net. The threat if the press should focus attentions.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions from anything said in that hand delivered letter. I'd check everything, and I mean everything for myself, first hand.

There's something very odd about this case. Why didn't the school inform you that they were taking this case to court, (if that is in fact what they have done?) I'd start with the Citizen's Advice Bureau. If the school has been informing you that it will sort things out as you put it, but was actually taking you to court without your knowledge then something is very wrong. But I wouldn't know what the legal implications of that situation would be. It seems silly of the school because their interest lies in getting you to pay and this isn't the best way of doing it.

I'd want to know the court case details before I made any attempt to get my cheque book out. There are lots of things about this case which just don't make any sense. And I can't imagine how a county court could make a judgement in this case without seeking to ascertain the facts, which without speaking to your son, I can't see how they can have done. I'm not sure for certain, but I suspect judges don't go around making judgements about cases when they've no clue what's been going on. In fact most of this case makes no sense.

I would reiterate the advice to insist on copies of the dinner registers. If it is a primary school they would be completed on a daily basis to show if a child was having a school meal or packed lunch. Any request for payment would be on the basis of what is shown on the register and schools would soon chase a parent when a number of meals had been taken and not paid for. DInner registers form part of a school's financial records and must be retained for 6 years.

I'm amazed they 'let' him have any more dinners after one month's went unpaid. Whoever's in charge of finance at that school must be a monkey!

to be fair learnandsay the Judge hasn't probably had a look at the case. The request to issue a summons will have gone to a clerk, a ntofication of judgement will have been sent out supposedly to the OP's address with a deadline of x number of days in which she is to respond either by paying up or by sending in a defence, (ie in this case, bog off my son has packed lunches) and then and only then would it go before a judge. if the paperwork is not returned by the post office it is deemed served and then after the x number of days the council or the school can pay to issue an enforcement warrant, which will trigger the bailiff.

OP get onto the courts first, then the head teacher and ask for the chair of governors to call you back asap. Tell them you want all paperwork hand delivered to your home by the end of the day, you want them to look into this personally and for them to speak to the teachers your child had when they were at the school, teachers do remember such things as meal choices. Tell them the office have made a monumental cock up mistake and you want it sorting yesterday!

can you explain to me who you are supposed to be paying is it the council or the school , if the school then the Chair of Governors should be aware of the CCJ as they should have been the one to sign off and agree the claim being made, it should be minuted in a Finance Committe Governors meeting. If it's the council and all school meals are through the council and debt is chased by them then speak to the Legal Department of the Council ask for the city solicitor. BUT DO NOT PAY.

I can't help in anyway but DS1 has school dinners and at the start of the year I had to fill in and sign a form saying whether he was going to be school dinners or packed lunches.

Do you remember doing that?

Also I used to pay weekly and one week I was ill and forgot to send his money in on the Monday. By the Wednesday he had a letter to bring home.

the only thing I remember is him bringing a letter home asking for all parents to apply for free school dinners even if they didn't think they qualified.

I'll have to ask for a copy of the registers as well. I'm hoping to get up there tomorrow to see what exactly it is they have.

Call your local councillor straight away - I used to be one and I can tell you that they can get access to people in minutes that could take you days. You don't need to wait till the morning either - it's pretty usual for people to call in the evenings.

Also, phone your MP, don't write - they have an office full of caseworkers who handle these kind of things everyday. However, MPs don't have the same clout as a Councillor does when it comes to local council issues so definitely call both.