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

The request was successful.

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

Yours faithfully,

Gwyn Worth

Information.Matters@thurrock.gov.uk, Thurrock Borough Council

Thank you for your email. 

 

Your enquiry is important to us and will be recorded and responded to in
line with respective timeframes.  Our team will monitor the progress of
your enquiry to ensure you receive a timely response.

Regards

Tina Martin

Statutory & Corporate Complaints Manager

Information Governance Team

 

Disclaimer

The information in this e-mail and any attachment(s) are intended to be
confidential and may be legally privileged. Access to and use of its
content by anyone else other than the addressee(s) may be unlawful and
will not be recognised by Thurrock Council for business purposes. If you
have received this message by mistake, please notify the sender
immediately, delete it and do not copy it to anyone else. Thurrock Council
cannot accept any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of this
message as it has been transmitted over a public network.

Any opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of Thurrock Council.

Any attachment(s) to this message has been checked for viruses, but please
rely on your own virus checker and procedures.

Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that under the UK Data
Protection and Freedom of Information legislation these contents may have
to be disclosed in response to a request.

All e-mail sent to or from this address will be processed by Thurrock
Council's corporate e-mail system and may be subject to scrutiny by
someone other than the addressee.

This email has been scanned for viruses and malware, and may have been
automatically archived by Mimecast Ltd, an innovator in Software as a
Service (SaaS) for business. Providing a safer and more useful place for
your human generated data. Specializing in; Security, archiving and
compliance. To find out more [1]Click Here.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.mimecast.com/products/

Barrell, Tina, Thurrock Borough Council

Dear Ms Worth,

Thank you for your recent communication which is being managed in line
with the Freedom of Information Act under the above reference number.  The
details of your request are outlined below together with the council’s
response.

Your request

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 Thurrock Borough Council have its computer software set to deal
with non-specific payments. Current or oldest year's liability?

Our Response

If a person has multiple years debts outstanding and a payment plan is set
for the in-year element after a Liability Order has been obtained a
confirmation letter will be sent and the system will identify these
specific payments when they are made and allocate them to the in-year
balance.

 

If a payment is made that is not part of an agreed plan, this will be
allocated to the oldest debt first. However, if at the time of making the
payment it is stated it is to go to the current year this payment can of
course be allocated to the current year, or any other specific year as
requested.

 

If a charge payer engages with the Council either by having a specific
plan, or by identifying where they wish their payment to be allocated to
there should be no allocation issues.

You are free to use any information supplied to you for your own use,
including non-commercial research purposes.  However, any other type of
re-use, for example, by publishing the information or issuing copies to
the public will require the permission of the copyright owner.

Where the copyright is owned by Thurrock Council, you must apply to the
Council to re-use the information.  Please email
[1][Thurrock Borough Council request email] if you wish to re-use the
information you have been supplied. For information where the copyright is
owned by another person or organisation, you must apply to the copyright
owner to obtain their permission.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which the council have managed
your request you can pursue an independent review by contacting us at the
above address and your request will be considered by the Information
Manager who will update you with the outcome. 

You may also wish to refer your case to the Information Commissioner’s
Office, details of this organisation can be found at [2]www.ico.org.uk .
Alternatively they can be contacted on 0303 123 1113.

 

Please note my working hours below, please copy in
[3][Thurrock Borough Council request email] in relation to all FOI matters if
you receive my out of office.

 

Working Hours: Mon/Tues 9.00am-1.00pm – Wed/Thurs 9am-12.30pm

 

Many thanks

 

Tina Barrell

 

Tina Barrell l Complaints & Information Governance Assistant I HR, OD &
Transformation

[4]thurrock.gov.uk

Thurrock Council, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex RM17 6SL

 

Thurrock: A place of opportunity, enterprise and excellence, where
individuals, communities and businesses flourish

 

This email has been processed by Smoothwall Anti-Spam -
[5]www.smoothwall.net

Disclaimer

The information in this e-mail and any attachment(s) are intended to be
confidential and may be legally privileged. Access to and use of its
content by anyone else other than the addressee(s) may be unlawful and
will not be recognised by Thurrock Council for business purposes. If you
have received this message by mistake, please notify the sender
immediately, delete it and do not copy it to anyone else. Thurrock Council
cannot accept any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of this
message as it has been transmitted over a public network.

Any opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of Thurrock Council.

Any attachment(s) to this message has been checked for viruses, but please
rely on your own virus checker and procedures.

Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that under the UK Data
Protection and Freedom of Information legislation these contents may have
to be disclosed in response to a request.

All e-mail sent to or from this address will be processed by Thurrock
Council's corporate e-mail system and may be subject to scrutiny by
someone other than the addressee.

This email has been scanned for viruses and malware, and may have been
automatically archived by Mimecast Ltd, an innovator in Software as a
Service (SaaS) for business. Providing a safer and more useful place for
your human generated data. Specializing in; Security, archiving and
compliance. To find out more [6]Click Here.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Thurrock Borough Council request email]
2. http://www.lgo.org.uk/
3. mailto:[Thurrock Borough Council request email]
4. http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/
5. http://www.smoothwall.net/
6. http://www.mimecast.com/products/

Dear Ms Barrell,

Thank you for stating that non-matching payments are allocated to the oldest debt.

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 (other than relying on customer contact) 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

Barrell, Tina, Thurrock Borough Council

Dear Ms Worth,

 

Further to your email of the 4^th December, please see below response
received from the Department:

 

Further to our recent reply, I can confirm Thurrock applies payments as
stated in that response.  Furthermore, should the situation occur as
mentioned in your correspondence, the Council Tax payer would receive
ongoing communications relating to the in-year balance that would enable
them to engage and address the situation.  I am sure you will appreciate
if the payer does not make it clear where they wish their payment to be
allocated or the payment does not match an agreed instalment or repayment
plan it is not unreasonable to allocate this payment to the oldest debt.

 

I hope that this concludes your enquiry.

 

Please note my working hours below, please copy in
[1][Thurrock Borough Council request email] in relation to all FOI matters if
you receive my out of office.

 

Working Hours: Mon/Tues 9.00am-1.00pm – Wed/Thurs 9am-12.30pm

 

Many thanks

 

Tina Barrell

 

Tina Barrell l Complaints & Information Governance Assistant I HR, OD &
Transformation

[2]thurrock.gov.uk l ext: 64882

Thurrock Council, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex RM17 6SL

 

Thurrock: A place of opportunity, enterprise and excellence, where
individuals, communities and businesses flourish

 

From: Gwyn Worth [mailto:[FOI #443311 email]]
Sent: 04 December 2017 11:59
To: Barrell, Tina
Subject: Re: RESPONSE FOI 7395

 

Dear Ms Barrell,

Thank you for stating that non-matching payments are allocated to the
oldest debt.

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 (other than relying on customer contact) 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

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Barrell,

Thank you for your response. I consider Thurrock Borough 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 being unable to confirm 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).

Yours sincerely,

Gwyn Worth