A Universal Credit claimaint has sparked a debate after asking ‘how can the council do this without talking to me first’. The man took to Facebook after receiving a message on his Universal Credit journal informing him that he had got into arrears on council tax - and that it would automatically be taken out of his benefits.
And to make it worse the note doesn’t tell him how much is being taken so he can plan for it. He wrote: “I’ve just got this on my UC journal can the council do this without even talking to me about it?” It sparked quite a debate on the social media platform with some sympathising - and others decidedly not.
The warning said: “We have agreed to use some of your Universal Credit to help pay council tax or community charge arrears. Your local council asked us to do this. We will pay some money straight to them each month.
“How much we pay your local council each month will depend on the amount of Universal Credit you get. Your next statement will tell you how much we have taken.”
One replied to his original note: “Yes! You have debt , you need to pay it so they have gone straight to UC for payment plan.” The man replied: “I understand that but they never contacted me first this is the first I’ve heard about it.”
Another said: “They have a procedure to follow, so they will have issued reminder notice, potentially final notice and summons. Once it has passed the summons stage, if no agreement has been made they can do an attachment of benefits without telling you.”
One gave advice: “Is it that you didn’t know you were in arrears or did know about that but didn’t know they could claw back the money this way? You might be able to reduce the amount if the first you knew of any money being owed was this notification.”
Others said they had the same thing. One said: “Yes they went and asked for council tax to be taken out off mine and water 90 pounds a month they took off me.” Another said: “They take £18.44 a month off mine.”
On Council Tax one person said: “Council tax is a priority debt above anything else, its more important that rent and other bills, and prisonable offence if not paid, it's disgusting that we have to pay it and see nothing from it.”
However another explained that it had to be paid: “Well it pays for public services and your local council so you do see something for it. who do you think would pay for all this if the public didn’t? As much as I dislike my local CT dept, it does have to be paid.”
Universal credit regulations allow the DWP to deduct a maximum of 40% of a claimant’s standard allowance for debts. The standard allowance amount is based on the claimant’s age and whether they claiming as a single person or jointly with their partner.
The DWP can only exceed this percentage if it decides that it is the claimant’s best interests and the deductions are for:
- owner-occupier service charges
- rent and service charges included in rent
- fuel costs
