Ensuring customers are not subject to unnecessary recovery action, additional costs or hardship
Dear Lincoln 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 Lincoln City Council have its computer software set to deal with non specific payments. Current or oldest year's liability?
Yours faithfully,
Gwyn Worth
Dear Mr Worth,
I refer to your request for information received on 24-10-17 in relation
to the above.
I confirm that your request is being considered under the above Act. You
will receive the information requested within the statutory timescale of
20 working days, subject to the information not being exempt or containing
a reference to a third party.
If appropriate, the information may be provided in paper copy, normal font
size. If you require alternative formats, e.g. language, audio, large
print, etc. then please let me know.
For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions which may
prevent release of the information you have requested. There will be an
assessment and if any of the exemptions categories apply then the
information 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 be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to
release the information to you. You will be informed if this is the case.
There may be a fee payable for this information. This will be considered
and you will be informed if a fee is payable. In this event the fee must
be paid before the information is processed and released. The 20 working
day time limit for responses is suspended until receipt of the payment.
If you have any queries or concerns then please contact the Freedom of
Information Officer, City of Lincoln Council, City Hall, Beaumont Fee,
Lincoln, LN1 1DB. Telephone 01522 873840, e-mail [1][Lincoln 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 www.ico.org.uk
With regards,
Legal Services
T 01522 873840
City of Lincoln Council - Legal Services
City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln, LN1 1DE
====================================================================================================================
City of Lincoln Council is a Living Wage employer. If you would like to
know more about the Living Wage, or sign up to the Making Lincoln Living
Wage campaign, please visit [2]www.lincolnagainstpoverty.co.uk/livingwage
This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may
contain sensitive or classified material up to OFFICIAL and should be
handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to
receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it
to anyone else. Please also notify the sender immediately
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000
the contents of this email may be disclosed.
The City of Lincoln Council reserves the right to monitor both sent and
received emails.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Lincoln City Council request email]
2. http://www.lincolnagainstpoverty.co.uk/l...
Dear Mr ,
I refer to your request for information received on 11:39:50 26 Oct 2017
concerning the above and enclose the information requested.
The City of Lincoln Council does not have its systems set to automatically
allocate payments to either Current or Previous years.
Our systems are capable of looking at the payment and allocating this to
the relevant instalment within certain parameters. This is +/- £0.99 of
the instalment set up.
Therefore if a payment is made to the Council which appears to match the
current year instalment/s (one or more) allowing a tolerance of +/- £0.99
the payment will be allocated to the current year - otherwise this will go
to the arrears.
If you wish to appeal against the handling of your request then please
contact the Freedom of Information Officer at the City of Lincoln Council,
City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln, LN1 1DB. Telephone 01522 873441 or
e-mail [1][Lincoln 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 www.ico.org.uk
With regards,
Legal Services
T 01522 873840
City of Lincoln Council - Legal Services
City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln, LN1 1DE
====================================================================================================================
City of Lincoln Council is a Living Wage employer. If you would like to
know more about the Living Wage, or sign up to the Making Lincoln Living
Wage campaign, please visit [2]www.lincolnagainstpoverty.co.uk/livingwage
This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may
contain sensitive or classified material up to OFFICIAL and should be
handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to
receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it
to anyone else. Please also notify the sender immediately
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000
the contents of this email may be disclosed.
The City of Lincoln Council reserves the right to monitor both sent and
received emails.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Lincoln City Council request email]
2. http://www.lincolnagainstpoverty.co.uk/l...
Dear [email address],
Thank you for stating that Lincoln City Council has its system set to automatically allocate payments which do not match the current year instalment etc. to arrears (within a +/- £0.99 tolerance).
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
Dear Sir
With reference to your follow up queries, please see below.
It is allocated to the arrears as ‘soft cash’ and can be moved into the current year at officer discretion.
If it exactly matches an instalment in a special arrangement on arrears – or in the current year, this would be matched as ‘hard cash’
If it matches within the tolerance level ie +/- 99p this is allocated as ‘soft cash’ .
We do not however set up an arrangement with a customer on arrears on an account and then systematically move their payments into the current year.
With regards.
Karan Shearwood
Legal Officer
T 01522 873840
City of Lincoln Council
City Hall, Beaumont Fee, Lincoln, LN1 1DD
http://www.lincoln.gov.uk/doitonline
Read more about our vision
Dear Shearwood, Karan (City of Lincoln Council),
Thank you for clarifying my query. I consider Lincoln 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 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 having not indicated that there are measures in place to ensure that unspecified payments are allocated to the account which it is least burdensome for the debtor 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).
If it appears I have misunderstood anything by what I have stated I would appreciate if you would correct me.
Yours sincerely,
Gwyn Worth
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now