Ensuring customers are not subject to unnecessary recovery action, additional costs or hardship

The request was partially successful.

Dear Derby City Council,

A council taxpayer who owes more than just the current year's liability runs the risk of incurring additional recovery costs through a further application for a liability order if payments which are intended for the current year's liability are allocated by the council's computer to the previous year's liability. This would most likely happen where a non specific payment is made and the computer software is set to automatically allocate these payments to the oldest year's debt.

Councils computer systems have the necessary flexibility to be set to allow non specific payments to be allocated to the arrears or the current year's liability.

I understand that the majority of billing authorities have their computer software set to ensure that their customers are not subject to unnecessary recovery action, additional costs or hardship, i.e. so non specific payments are allocated to the current year's liability.

How does Derby City Council have its computer software set to deal with non specific payments. Current or oldest year's liability?

Yours faithfully,

Gwyn Worth

FOI, Derby City Council

This is acknowledgement that your e-mail has been received by the Freedom
of Information team.  We will respond to you as soon as possible.

 

If you are making a Freedom of Information request you will receive a
response within the statutory 20 working day timescale.

 

Freedom of Information Team | Governance & Assurance | Resources
Directorate| Derby City Council, The Council House, Corporation Street,
Derby DE1 2FS | Telephone 01332 640763 | Minicom 01332 640666 | Web:
[1]www.derby.gov.uk

Proud of Derby

 

 

You can now visit and subscribe to the Derby Newsroom for Council news and
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[2]derby.gov.uk/news

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FOI, Derby City Council

I acknowledge your request for information received on 16^th October about
how Derby City Council have its computer software set to deal with
non-specific payments. Current or oldest year's liability.

Your request is being considered and you will receive the information
requested as soon as possible, but in any case by 13^th November the
statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOI) unless the information requested is subject to
a statutory exemption on disclosure or the information contains reference
to a third party.

 

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions, which may
prevent release of the information you have requested. Some exemptions are
subject to a public interest test. There will be an assessment and if any
of the exemption categories apply and any relevant public interest test is
weighed in favour of withholding the information it will not be released.
You will be informed if this is the case, including your rights of appeal.

 

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then
they may need to be consulted before a decision is taken on whether the
information can be released to you. You will be informed if this is the
case.

 

There may be a fee payable for supplying the information in the form of
disbursements. This will be calculated and you will be informed if a fee
is payable. The fee must be paid before the information is released and
the 20 working day time limit for responses is suspended until payment is
made. You will have 3 calendar months to submit your payment.

 

If you have any queries or concerns then please contact the

Freedom of Information Officer
Derby City Council
The Council House
Corporation Street
Derby
DE1 2FS

Telephone 01332 640763 or e-mail [1][Derby City Council request email]

Further information is also available from the Information Commissioner
at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700

[2]www.ico.org

Kind regards,

Freedom of Information Team | Organisation & Governance Directorate
| Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby
DE1 2FS| 01332 640763 | [3]www.derby.gov.uk

Proud of Derby

 

You can now visit and subscribe to the Derby Newsroom for Council news and
updates
[4]derby.gov.uk/news

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FOI, Derby City Council

2 Attachments

Dear Gwyn Worth,

 

Your request for information has been considered and the information
requested is attached.

 

For your information this request has cost the Council £18.75 to process.

 

Supply to you of any material does not give you the right to use it in a
way that breaches the copyright or other intellectual property rights in
that material. For example publishing or otherwise re-using it for
commercial purposes or sending any marketing material or spam emails. You
must get the consent of the copyright owner which may involve the granting
of a licence and the application of a fee.

 

This does not restrict your rights under the fair dealing provisions of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

 

If you have any queries or concerns or are unhappy with the handling of
your request then please contact:

 

Freedom of Information Officer

Derby City Council

The Council House
Corporation Street
Derby
DE1 2FS

 

Telephone 01332 640763 or e-mail [1][Derby City Council request email]

 

Further information about Freedom of Information is available from the
Information Commissioner at:

 

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF 
Telephone:   01625 545 700

[2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Team | Organisation & Governance Directorate
| Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby
DE1 2FS| 01332 640763 | [3]www.derby.gov.uk

[4]cid:image001.png@01D31A81.82FBCDC0

 

You can now visit and subscribe to the Derby Newsroom for Council news and
updates
[5]derby.gov.uk/news

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Dear FOI,

Thank you for stating that unmatched payments are allocated to the oldest liability.

Would you please confirm whether or not any measures are in place to check that allocating an unmatched payment to the oldest debt in these circumstances would have the consequences of putting the current year's liability also in arrears, and if so, in accordance with R. v Miskin Lower Justices [1953] 1 Q.B. 533, whether the payment would be moved in respect of the current year's account to avoid unnecessary recovery action, additional costs etc.?

Yours sincerely,

Gwyn Worth

FOI, Derby City Council

This is acknowledgement that your e-mail has been received by the Freedom
of Information team.  We will respond to you as soon as possible.

 

If you are making a Freedom of Information request you will receive a
response within the statutory 20 working day timescale.

 

Freedom of Information Team | Governance & Assurance | Resources
Directorate| Derby City Council, The Council House, Corporation Street,
Derby DE1 2FS | Telephone 01332 640763 | Minicom 01332 640666 | Web:
[1]www.derby.gov.uk

Proud of Derby

 

 

You can now visit and subscribe to the Derby Newsroom for Council news and
updates
[2]derby.gov.uk/news

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Gwyn Worth left an annotation ()

"For your information this request has cost the Council £18.75 to process."

The information would have taken all of 5 minutes to retrieve. I don't think it was fair to cost the task on the Chief Executive's hourly rate.

FOI, Derby City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Gwyn Worth,

 

Please see below for our response to the additional information you
requested, 09/11/2017. 

 

Question

 

“Would you please confirm whether or not any measures are in place to
check that allocating an unmatched payment to the oldest debt in these
circumstances would have the consequences of putting the current year's
liability also in arrears, and if so, in accordance with R. v Miskin Lower
Justices [1953] 1 Q.B. 533, whether the payment would be moved in respect
of the current year's account to avoid unnecessary recovery action,
additional costs etc.?”

 

Response

 

Whilst there is no formal process, should a customer make the Council
aware that payment has not been allocated in accordance with their
instruction then the case will be reappraised.

Supply to you of any material does not give you the right to use it in a
way that breaches the copyright or other intellectual property rights in
that material. For example publishing or otherwise re-using it for
commercial purposes or sending any marketing material or spam emails. You
must get the consent of the copyright owner which may involve the granting
of a licence and the application of a fee.

 

This does not restrict your rights under the fair dealing provisions of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

 

If you have any queries or concerns or are unhappy with the handling of
your request then please contact:

 

Freedom of Information Officer

Derby City Council

The Council House
Corporation Street
Derby
DE1 2FS

 

Telephone 01332 640763 or e-mail [1][Derby City Council request email]

 

Further information about Freedom of Information is available from the
Information Commissioner at:

 

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF 
Telephone:   01625 545 700

[2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Team | Organisation & Governance Directorate
| Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby
DE1 2FS| 01332 640763 | [3]www.derby.gov.uk

[4]cid:image001.png@01D31A81.82FBCDC0

 

You can now visit and subscribe to the Derby Newsroom for Council news and
updates
[5]derby.gov.uk/news

[6][IMG]

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Dear FOI,

Thank you for clarifying my query. I consider Derby City Council has provided the information I requested, however, the purpose of this exercise was to ascertain whether or not the principles surrounding the appropriation of payments were being adhered to.

R v Miskin Lower Justices (1953)

It was held in R v Miskin Lower Justices, that where an amount obviously relates to a specific liability, it would be an unwarranted assumption to allocate the payment elsewhere.

If no instruction is given at the time of payment, then the council has a duty to allocate payment to the account which it is most beneficial to the debtor to reduce. That would be in the majority of cases the current liability if the consequences of allocating payment to the arrears meant that the customer was subject to unnecessary recovery action, additional costs etc.

I understand by the council indicating that there are no measures in place to ensure that unspecified payments are allocated to the account which it is least burdensome for the debtor (other than relying on customer contact) that the laws surrounding the appropriation of payments are not being complied with. If the laws of appropriation were being complied with, an unmatched payment allocated to the oldest debt (having the consequences of putting the current year's liability also in arrears) would be reallocated to the current year's liability on account of the circumstances implying that this was the debtor's intention (least burdensome for the debtor).

Yours sincerely,

Gwyn Worth

FOI, Derby City Council

This is acknowledgement that your e-mail has been received by the Freedom
of Information team.  We will respond to you as soon as possible.

 

If you are making a Freedom of Information request you will receive a
response within the statutory 20 working day timescale.

 

Freedom of Information Team | Governance & Assurance | Resources
Directorate| Derby City Council, The Council House, Corporation Street,
Derby DE1 2FS | Telephone 01332 640763 | Minicom 01332 640666 | Web:
[1]www.derby.gov.uk

Proud of Derby

 

 

You can now visit and subscribe to the Derby Newsroom for Council news and
updates
[2]derby.gov.uk/news

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