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

The request was successful.

Dear East Hampshire District 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 East Hampshire District Council have its computer software set to deal with non specific payments. Current or oldest year's liability?

Yours faithfully,

Gwyn Worth

EHDC - Info Shared, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Worth

Please DO NOT reply to this email as it was sent from an unattended mailbox

Request for information received on 27/10/2017 09:30.

Reference number FOI-001769

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and will be answered within 20 working days of receipt of the information request.

For more information about how we deal with Freedom of Information and/or Environmental Information Regulation requests, go to: www.easthants.gov.uk/access-information<http://www.easthants.gov.uk/access-infor...>

Your request details:

Louise Bicknell, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Mr Worth

Thank you for your Information Request.

East Hampshire District Council has its computer software set to deal with non specific payments on oldest year's liability first.

If you have any complaints in respect of your information request, please write to the Complaints Monitoring Officer at the address below or complete the on-line form that can be found at <http://www.havant.gov.uk/contact-us> http://<http:///><http:///> www.easthants.gov.uk<http://www.easthants.gov.uk> If your complaint is not resolved to your complete satisfaction, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

Kind Regards

Louise

Louise Bicknell - Revenues Manager

East Hampshire District Council

Penns Place Petersfield GU31 4EX

Direct Tel: 01730 234146

www.easthants.gov.uk<http://www.easthants.gov.uk>

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If you are requesting information from East Hampshire District Council under the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations, you can submit and track your request online through a My East Hampshire District Council account. Go to https://my.easthants.gov.uk/services/foi... to get started.

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Any statutory timeframe for a response will not commence until the request is received by the council through a My East Hampshire District Council account or the [email address]<mailto:[email address]> email address.

EHDC - Info Shared, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Worth

Please DO NOT reply to this email as it was sent from an unattended mailbox

This is an automatic notification that your FOI/EIR Request FOI-001769 has now been marked as resolved. You should receive a separate email with specific details.

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East Hampshire District Council

Dear Louise Bicknell,

Thank you for stating that 'East Hampshire District Council has its computer software set to deal with non specific payments on oldest year's liability first'.

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

Louise Bicknell, East Hampshire District Council

Dear Mr Worth,

Further to your email, the payment allocation is as follows:

The payment matches an instalment due for the current year it is allocated to the current year; if not

The payment matches an arrangement agreed to settle a prior year debt it is allocated to that debt; if not the payment is allocated to the oldest debt.

A report is run four times a week to check that payments are being correctly allocated.If it is evident that a payment has been allocated to an incorrect year the payment is transferred.

If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to ask.

Kind Regards

Louise

Louise Bicknell - Revenues Manager

East Hampshire District Council

Penns Place Petersfield GU31 4EX

Direct Tel: 01730 234146

www.easthants.gov.uk<http://www.easthants.gov.uk>

facebook.com/EastHampshireDistrictCouncil

twitter.com/EastHantsDC

If you are requesting information from East Hampshire District Council under the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations, you can submit and track your request online through a My East Hampshire District Council account. Go to https://my.easthants.gov.uk/services/foi... to get started.

If you would prefer not to set up an account or are making a query under the Data Protection Act, please email [email address]<mailto:[email address]>

Any statutory timeframe for a response will not commence until the request is received by the council through a My East Hampshire District Council account or the [email address]<mailto:[email address]> email address.

Dear Louise Bicknell,

I consider East Hampshire District Council has provided the information I requested. 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's response (i.e. 'if it is evident that a payment has been allocated to an incorrect year the payment is transferred') that there are measures in place to ensure that unspecified payments are allocated to the account which it is least burdensome for the debtor, and consequently the laws surrounding the appropriation of payments are being complied with. This effectively means that 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