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

Okay, Lemonmousse, thanks - was being over sensitive too, I think

Would just like to add to all this school dinners money confusion.
I pay the council for school dinners, we can set it up online, pay via phone or cash in an envelope.
Now the odd thing is my son was having school dinners 3 days a week, and I hadn't paid for five weeks. No phone call, no letter, no txt. Nobody cared.
Anyway when I finally got round to calling them to pay the owing amount, they had no record of it, and told me I didn't owe anything for school dinners. Apparently it was all up to date. Obviously I insisted I owed 15 days worth.

Forgot to add hope it is all sorted.

Apologies if this has been suggested before - have read most of the thread and all the OP's reponses but not every word.

In my DS's school you pay before taking school dinners following a letter telling all the parents how much it will be for the term/per day/per week. If it is a case of mistaken identity, surely the parents of the other boy would most likely have paid for the dinners and the school will have an unallocated amount sitting in an account somewhere? I suppose it may not be obvious since it would have come into the school in dribs and drabs over the period in question but it might be worth the question.

Have you asked the school why they allowed such a huge debt to be run up before telling anybody and why it took until he left to start chasing it?

I hope the end is in sight though. If all else fails this could be one for the new series of Watchdog!

That's what happened to us - there was indeed an unallocated amount but nobody seemed to be able to read a spreadsheet well enough to link this with the amount we had paid.

WRT to the registers, they they are legally obliged to make available the information, but they have to delete all the other children's names apart from your own.

This sounds so stressful, OP - I'm glad things are getting sorted out, and well done you for having been so determined and not letting the school's mistakes go unchallenged.

Hi mumatron,

Just ignore people in your thread who are saying silly and disruptive things. You've had loads of support in this thread and the vast majority of people are right behind you and it's a good thing too. You always get a few idiots in a bunch. That's life.

If you've got proof that they were charging you for a period when you weren't even in the country! I'd be writing out complaints to every official in the kingdom. Sounds to be like they couldn't find their proverbial bottom with both hands. And to be sending bailiffs round to my house because of cackhanded bureaucracy would not be accepted under any circumstances. I'd be out to collect my pound of flesh with a vengeance.

There was just one idiot, learnandsay.

All I can say is threaten them lea?school? with Watchdog, it usually works for me. It's surprising how bad publicity helps to sort it out quickly. Don't forget the stress and strain its taking out on you. See GP and get a letter, get all info together as suggested and maybe also cab. Good luck, this is obviously a stupid case of miss identity or similar.

Update for anyone still interested.

I have just come home from work to a groveling letter of apology from the school headmaster.

it doesn't give any details but he put it down to a mis communication between themselves and the council and and 'admin error' within the school.

I have called my new best friend the bailiff and he has confirmed he has been advised the debt is no longer valid.

I am in the process of drafting up a complaint to the school governors though. this really has caused me loads of unnecessary stress.

Thank ou all for the support. I think I would have caved in and paid if the mn collective hadn't been behind me

Glad it's sorted.

I'm having a good day so far scurry

I'm just waiting for something to go wrong now

I'm glad it's sorted but it's still worth checking your credit file to make sure that the information is removed from there and doesn't affect your credit rating in years to come.

good call daisy didn't think of that.

Well done Mumatron. That must be a weight off your shoulders and great that you have it in writing so that they can't come at you again in a few weeks or months.

Hope you have a great and relaxing weekend.

So glad it's being sorted,you're being very good about it,I'd want blood(a bunch of flowers at the very least or free school dinners for the rest of the year).

"Admin error"hmmm methinks somebody deserves a rolicking!

About bloody time too! what a farce, would second the suggestion to check experian and your credit rating and keep checking for the next 6 months, it can take awhile for CCJs to show up. Even after you've complained to Lea and Chair of Governors, if anything shows up against your credit rating get back on to them to ensure it's properly expunged from your records . Hopefully the school admin staff have learnt a huge lesson on how to do their jobs properly! And how to listen to complaints and resolve them.

Glad to have been part of the collective which stopped you paying

Amazing how things differ from LEA to LEA and indeed, from school to school it seems.

Our office administrators send a letter home on the first day of a lunch debt, followed up by a phone call if the debt isn't cleared the next day. If it still isn't cleared, a letter is then sent home telling the parents that school dinners will no longer be provided, and they must provide a packed lunch for their child until the pay back the money owed. Added to that, the child is sought out and also told they must make sure their parents send them a packed lunch the next day.

We've got over 300 on roll, and children just don't get mixed up like that. No debt is ever more than £4.20 (2 days).

Glad it's sorted - but agree about writing a complaint - this has caused you undue stress. Maybe invoice them for YOUR time and stress

diabolo from asking around that is the norm here too. No idea what has happened in this school for this have happened.

I will make a complaint, but after what I have had to deal with I'm not expecting much tbh.

Good idea kidding

Good idea kidding

So glad it's all sorted out, what a relief for you

Still interested? Of course we're still interested! I've been checking every day to see what happened.

Glad you got an apology - quite right too.

Here's my guess about what went wrong (purely guesswork but feasible)

A parent (not you) doesn't pay their dinner money. School contact them requesting payment. Parent ignores request (some do - believe me, I know!). Further requests are sent, texts, notes, formal letters - the parent still ignores and doesn't pay. School informs the LEA about non payment BUT school give the wrong details to the LEA (i.e. yours) and LEA pursue the debt. Maybe it is a child with a similar name, maybe it's just complete incompetence on the school's part? Bit of both probably.

I think you're doing the right thing drawing it to the attention of the Governing body