Maladministration

Enid Brighton made this Freedom of Information request to North East Lincolnshire Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

The following identifies the case to which I refer:

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/show...

Background

A Council Tax reminder notice was sent to the taxpayer 13 October 2014.

The taxpayer emailed the council on 16th October explaining that because an instalment payment was made in two separate transactions the Council Tax processing system perhaps didn’t recognise payment and allocated part of this to a previous year's account (an apparent a flaw in these systems which leads to putting council taxpayers in arrears).

The council was asked to reallocate payment to the current year's account, if in fact the problem lie in misallocated payments.

An automated email acknowledgement stated that the council aimed to respond within 10 working days but never did.

The taxpayer noticed from viewing the council’s website on 10 November 2014 that the account balance had increased by £60 (the council's standard summons costs). It is reasonable to assume that the query had not been looked into and complaint made to the Magistrates’ court without checks to see what activity there had been on the taxpayer’s account.

The taxpayer emailed the council again (10 November) informing it that if it had made complaint to the Magistrates' court, it had done so unlawfully and was proof of maladministration, especially after the Council negligently failed to address the initial query. The taxpayer warned that if the query was similarly ignored and the concerns not remedied it would be reported to the police as attempted fraud.

The council failed to respond and on the 11 November 2014 the incident was reported to the police via the website “Action Fraud”.

A summons arriving on 12 November 2014 confirmed that the £60 added to the taxpayer’s account was the costs added in respect of issuing the summons. The hearing date was 28 November.

The council responded 27 days after it was contacted (12 November 2014) simply stating that the payments had been reallocated, there was no longer needed to go to court, the costs had been removed and the summons withdrawn.

Q.
I would like itemising the cost borne by the council (taxpayer) for wrongly issuing the reminder, instituting the complaint in the Magistrates’ court, issuing the summons and dealing with the queries.

I would also like itemising (if any) any of the incurred costs which can be recovered by mean other than from the defendant who obviously has not paid them.

If possible I would like the number of similar cases about which the council knows where its Council Tax processing system has wrongly allocated monies and consequently put accounts in arrears.

Yours faithfully,

Enid Brighton

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Sir/Madam

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 9283_1415.

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Brighton

 

Thank you for your information request, reference number 9283_1415.

 

I wish to confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council holds the following
information.

 

I would like itemising the cost borne by the council (taxpayer) for
wrongly issuing the reminder, instituting the complaint in the
Magistrates’ court, issuing the summons and dealing with the queries.

 

North East Lincolnshire Council does not wrongly allocate payments and
where instructed will allocate the payments as directed by the customer.
On occasions when customers do not clearly request allocation of payments
it will be allocated automatically to outstanding debts. When a customer
subsequently requests specific allocation this will then be carried out.

 

I can also confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council do not record this
specific information to an individual case level, and therefore do not
hold this information.

 

I would also like itemising (if any) any of the incurred costs which can
be recovered by mean other than from the defendant who obviously has not
paid them.

 

North East Lincolnshire Council do not record this specific information to
an individual case level, and therefore do not hold this information.

 

If possible I would like the number of similar cases about which the
council knows where its Council Tax processing system has wrongly
allocated monies and consequently put accounts in arrears.

 

North East Lincolnshire Council’s council tax processing system does not
wrongly allocate payments and where instructed will allocate the payments
as directed by the customer. On occasions when customers do not clearly
request allocation of payments it will be allocated automatically to
outstanding debts. When a customer subsequently requests specific
allocation this will then be carried out. Therefore it would not be
possible to identify any information fitting the criteria of this request.

 

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  If following this you are still dissatisfied you may
contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request
an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

Resources Directorate

 

 

 

 

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R. Suggitt left an annotation ()

Local authorities are keen to get cases (and as many as possible) into court, not least because summons costs of £40 to £125 can be added to the bill, making bulk summonsing a lucrative way of earning extra revenue.

Dear PPD - FOI,

I would like the following clarifying:

ONE

Response:
"North East Lincolnshire Council does not wrongly allocate payments and where instructed will allocate the payments as directed by the customer. On occasions when customers do not clearly request allocation of payments it will be allocated automatically to outstanding debts. When a customer subsequently requests specific allocation this will then be carried out."

Firstly the claim that 'when a customer subsequently requests specific allocation this will then be carried out' appears to be untrue. The example presented shows that NELC waited 27 days after being asked for funds to be reallocated to a specific account. In that time the customer had been issued a summons to attend court and needed to report an attempt of fraud to the police because of the delay.

Secondly, it is assumed that NELC considers paying a sum (in one transaction) matching exactly the instalment amount to constitute clearly requesting allocation of payments to that account. A customer who is for some reason unable to pay the exact instalment amount in one transaction, and for example pays the exact instalment amount but from two different sources is considered not clearly requesting allocation of payments to his current year's account. If this is the case then the council's reliance on automation amounts to negligence as the billing authority is legally obliged to assign payment to the year’s debt that the person specifies.

Although the election may be expressed, it may also be inferred from the circumstances of the transaction. It is only rational that a person indebted on two separate accounts would intend payment to be made against the current year if failing to would also subject that account to default. Knowing a council may then withdraw instalments and demand the whole balance immediately with further risk of being charged summons costs, these consequences would be sufficient to infer that it was the intended account.

TWO

Response:
"I can also confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council do not record this specific information to an individual case level, and therefore do not hold this information."

According to the law, North East Lincolnshire Council's response to this should have been £60, can the council please clarify why it does not hold the information.

THREE

Response:
"North East Lincolnshire Council do not record this specific information to an individual case level, and therefore do not hold this information."

I would expect North East Lincolnshire Council's response to this should have been £0.00, unless the MoJ refunds the Magistrates court fee of £3.00 when a summons has been applied for erroneously. Would the council please clarify if the MoJ does refund the fee.

Yours sincerely,

Enid Brighton

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Brighton

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your correspondence and wish to confirm that
an Internal Review of the handling of your Information Request 9283_1415
is to take place.

 

The Internal Review has been passed to the relevant department for
processing and you can expect your response within the 20 working day
limit. If it will take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you,
we will inform you of this and provide you with the expected date for
receiving a response.

 

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

 

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Ms Brighton

Further to your request an Internal Review has taken place into North East
Lincolnshire Council's handling of your information request reference
9283_1415, concerning allocation of payments in relation to Council Tax.

I have reviewed the response provided to you and the handling of your
request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and find:

o That your request was responded to within the statutory time of 20
working days;
o That you were informed whether or not the information you asked for
was held by North East Lincolnshire Council;
o That you were provided with the information you asked for available
under the Freedom of Information Act;
o That you were provided with the reasons why any information you had
asked for could not be supplied to you under the Freedom of
Information Act; and
o That your response provided you with your rights of appeal. 

I am therefore satisfied that the Council has acted in accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act in the handling of your request.

Addressing your first point, North East Lincolnshire Council does not hold
the information. In your example you refer to a specific account which is
unknown to the Council and as previously stated the Council does not hold
the information at an individual case level. If an individual has concerns
regarding the way their account has been administrated they are within
their right to raise this with the service. It is not within the scope of
the Freedom of Information Act to address these points.

In your next point you make assumptions with regards to inferred payments
which the Council will not comment on as it does not relate to recorded
information.

In relation to point TWO, North East Lincolnshire Council does not hold
the information at an individual case level, as previously advised. In
addition as it relates to an individual’s account, unknown to us.

In relation to point THREE, to clarify the Council receives no refunds
from the MOJ.

I trust that this Internal Review answers your queries in relation to your
request, and clarifies that your request has been handled in accordance
with the Freedom of Information Act. 

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or
the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review
by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Ian Hollingsworth

Information Governance and Complaints

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Dear PPD - FOI,

There have been some very serious failings which have come to light through the process of this FOI request regarding NELC's Council Tax processing system.

You may or may not be pleased (I suggest not) that NELC has learned nothing from being alerted to the maladministration.

Take a look:

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/show...

Yours sincerely,

Enid Brighton

Enid Brighton (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) pulled out all the stops to ensure North East Lincolnshire Council got away with this:

THE COMPLAINT
https://www.scribd.com/doc/262649159/LGO...

THE LGO's DRAFT DECISION
https://www.scribd.com/doc/300042529/Res...