Council tax review letter

[Mumofone154]

Good evening ,

looking for some help. I received a letter through the post asking me to confirm whether I’m still a single person discount and saying “ name” is linked to my address from a data matching exercise who happens to be my boyfriend ( hes also Not my child’s father) . It has asked me to provide details of his address if this is not the case any and other relevant information .

the only thing I can think is I don’t understand the data matching exercise but sometimes he gets his football cards delivered to mine as he orders for my son as well as they collect them.
he also gifted my son a computer for Christmas and it was quite costly so it’s on finance however it was delivered to my address but the billing for finance is at his current address, because of the computer he also pays for my WiFi as I wouldn’t have been able to afford to do so, this is in his name to my address.

I have explained this all via email to them, still awaiting a response .

im just so confused how this has been pulled up on a data matching exercise. Would it be from the WiFi he’s paying for? . He has everthing registered at this current address with his parents , payrol, electoral
Register, doctors, driving licence .

im quite worried about it all and stressing out as I shouldn’t of let him pay the WiFi

You'll be fine as he's not actually living there overnight/permanently, and all his important information, driving licence etc is also at his parents where he lives.
I imagine the council have the information about the WiFi or the computer purchase and are linking it and just want you to confirm he's not living at your address

Thank you. Fingers crossed I hear something from them soon

I had one of these letters, I just returned it with all the details and never heard a thing back, still get the single discount 3 years on

Did yours say someone was linked to your address as well from data matching exercise?

Bump

I had the same letter last year: the person who owned the house before me was incredibly lackadaisical and I still get correspondence addressed to him and his business from banks, HMRC, Companies House etc almost five years later, which I imagine is how a data matching exercise made a link. I just wrote back explaining that he was the previous owner, enclosed a copy of the seller information form which showed he was the seller with the dates, and the details of his conveyancer if they wanted to clarify. Never heard anything back, still have the single person discount.

You’ve provided your explanation and can evidence that your boyfriend lives elsewhere if they request further information. Don’t worry about it. Ultimately it’s an admin exercise which picks up things like the billing discrepancy you described, and is aiming to weed out the people who are living with somebody else they’ve either forgotten to declare or who have been fraudulently claiming a single person discount, for whom receiving the letter will nudge or scare them to notify the council about their change in circumstances.

How on earth would a council know if something he paid for was delivered to your address, or who pays for your WiFi? Has someone you know got the wrong end of the stick and attempted to report you? This sounds very odd.

Thank you x

They can pick stuff up from data matches I guess

Things like a home broadband account connected to an address are credit accounts which show up on credit files, which a searching agency the LA has commissioned to carry out a data matching exercise can obtain access to. OP’s boyfriend having a credit account at the OP’s address will likely have shown up as a “linked individual” on her credit file, and a data matching exercise can make a connection. It’s relatively common and not something the OP needs to worry about as her boyfriend doesn’t live with her.

I have had the same letter but with two people registered here. One was someone who I brought the house off and the second was my ex husband who has never lived here. I have sent a letter back and asked for information to explain how ex husband is linked but havent heard back.

It’s probably the “linked individual” credit file thing: if you ever shared any kind of credit account with your ex husband (likely) then he’ll be connected to your credit file. Data matching in initial stages is an AI exercise - and AI uses learned data and patterns rather than anything sophisticated.

No we don't get data from things like that at all. The only way we'd know this was if someone reported you or if the debt collectors for council tax had attended because you weren't paying and he answered the door or if someone in the department knows you and believes he is living there.

That would just be because you were linked on a previous address on the system and when you've moved he possibly didn't register at another address or if he did they believe it could be a second home if you didn't advise them you'd divorced.

Really the previous owner shouldn't have still been on it as the conveyancing solicitors are supposed to send in a letter advising who has purchased it, but it could be a simple Admin error of the person who has updated the account if they were new and made a mistake.

The joys of big data.

Public authorities do this all the time.

When we were selling my late DM’s home we stopped paying water rates as house was empty. We then received a letter from them at the property addressed to Mr X. Mr X was a grandchild in the US. When we asked where they had got the name from they said he must still have an account linked to the address. Turned out he still had a dormant bank account which used that address.

I work in the fraud department of local authority.
There's actually a big company called NFI that match data with other agencies and then inform local authorities.

It matches bus passes, taxi licences, electoral roll, credit check companies, finance companies, banks etc.

If you are defrauding the system you will be found out. It may not be today or tomorrow but you will be caught eventually.

@ShushAndLetMummySpeak will I get into Trouble if he’s paying my WiFi for me as I’m assuming that’s the link as the more I’ve looked into it I see that they aren’t allowed to contribute. I have proof I can provide for his address, and do I need to send back the form as it did say I could email or fill out the form. I have emailed back but not had a reply or any automated response

I can't remember if it mentioned data matching or not. I just gave their new address where I knew they were on the electoral roll and paying council tax.

@Mumofone154

I'll DM you if you like - the information I can tell you can be used for nefarious reasons by others...

You can’t “get into trouble” because somebody else is paying your Wi-Fi bill: anybody you like can pay any of your bills for you, there’s no law against it: the only complication is if you claim income-related benefits and it could appear that you were receiving illicit income in the form of somebody, such as a casual employer or a business partner, paying all your bills for you in lieu of actual pay so that you could continue to pretend you didn’t have an income - but this isn’t going to be the case with one single low-value contract for one particular service and has is nothing to do with the council querying your single person discount.

If your level of concern expressed here reflects that you think it might appear to outsiders that your boyfriend has moved in with you, then you need to address that: don’t let him add himself to any more of your utilities or credit contracts and when the current WiFi contract ends, put it into your own name and he can give you money to cover it if he wants to. As much as anything else, you want to have control of things like your home WiFi and be able to speak to the provider about them yourself: if they’re in his name and you break up, you’re going to be stuck as they won’t allow you to.

@ShushAndLetMummySpeak would appreciate that, thank you

@ComtesseDeSpair thank you for your response .will take this on board