Many thanks, HB!

Hello... I wonder if anyone could answer a question for me, please?

I understand that the weekly state pension for someone with full contributions is somewhere around £150 or thereabouts...

Any comments would be very welcome. Thanks.

Theda.

1 hour ago, London1971 said:

What help options have you explored in terms of your housing situation?

CAB?

Shelter?

Contact your local Councillor about the council tax in light of your housing situation, you might be on the priority housing list.  There must be options? Other than 2 people who have worked their whole lives, sofa surfing.

I contacted the DWP and they sent me a form to fill in... they said we were entitled to a large discount for rent and council tax... the problem is my husband who chose to get a job instead of signing the form... we could have stayed here in our rented home, but he has made us homeless by refusing benefits... there's nothing I can do now, unfortunately. We are unlikely to be rehoused by the council because they will say we have made ourselves homeless... I'm just sick with worry...

On 3/3/2019 at 10:20 PM, Dodgeball said:

An important point is that you cannot be committed for having insufficient funds and therefore being unable to pay. It must be that the debtor had the funds, but decided not to pay, or purposefully disregarded the courts order to pay.

The court must therefore conduct investigations into the debtors resources before any sentence can be passed. We must support the allusion that no one in this country can be incarcerated for being poor.

Ahhh... well, they could look at the finances but wouldn't find any money...

Thank you very much for the posts... the law surrounding council tax arrears is quite complicated.... we only owe 3 months and will scrape together enough money to pay...

A few months ago, we were told by DWP that we were entitled to a discount on Council Tax and Housing Benefit as our income fell below that needed to cover essentials... we are both 66 and only had our pensions...but my husband, who has never missed a day's work in his life, would not agree to accepting benefits, and went out and got a part time job, so I doubt we are entitled to anything now.

Not sure if the fact that we were entitled to a discount, but chose to live on our savings, (even though we had less than £5k saved), would cut it at court, though...

We will be sofa surfing in 3 weeks time as we can no longer afford to pay the rent and have given notice.

11 hours ago, London1971 said:

No need to worry about a criminal record, I would ring up and try to sort it out with the council.

Will do... I think he is just confused... when I was in charge of our finances many years ago, everything was paid by Direct Debit... but he refuses to do this, so it gets overlooked all the time... it's not as if they send a reminder or anything...

If only he would agree to a joint bank account and let me pay the bills, we wouldn't have all this stress... It really does make me ill and causes anxiety...

I definitely don't want to go to court...

6 hours ago, ss002d6252 said:

It's because it's one of the few civil cases still dealt with in the Magistrates' court- from the Magistrates side it's dealt with under Part2 of the MCA 1980 (Civil Jurisdiction & Procedure). Council Tax is a strange amalgam of civil law with some aspects more akin to criminal law thrown in (i.e jail for non-payment). As an aside the fact it's civil has caused major issues in the past in respect of disputing decisions of the court as s142 of the MCA 1980 (power to re-open cases) was deemed to be only applicable to magistrate's criminal cases - it was eventually ruled that the courts have a common law power to re-open a case if needed irrespective of their being no statutory power.

 

Now I'm very confused... so you can still go to jail for non payment, but imprisonment doesn't result in a criminal record?

Is it the same for the TV licence... that's a tax, too, isn't it?

Thanks very much for replies to my post.

Hmmm... I thought non payment of tax was criminal... my mistake!

Hi all..... I just don't know what to do... received a summons today for non payment of Council Tax.

It's in both mine and my husband's name and although we live together we also live quite separately, and don't share a bedroom or anything ... we have separate finances, but, on account that I only get a State pension of £306 a month, he pays most of the bills.

He has a State Pension, a small private pension and he works part time... he gets about £2k a month.

Years ago, we had a joint bank account, and I made sure the bills were paid on time... but now I don't even have access to his account so don't know what's been paid or what hasn't until the (unpaid) bills drop through the letterbox.

Anyway, as I said, we are jointly responsible for the council tax on our rented property, and have been summonsed to appear at court as he apparently didn't pay the last 2 installments.

He doesn't seem to worry about such things but I am at my wits end and suffer from anxiety... I don't want to be someone who is being chased for money all the time.

Do I have any defence at court if I state that I am unable to pay? It's not my fault that I receive such a small pension... I had to take part time jobs years ago so that I could look after my children. I have no other money or savings... I don't see what I can do to avoid a criminal record.

I hope someone can help, please...

But how do you know where to write & send the SAR to... ? Some PPI claims go way back and loan companies change their names or just disappear... I had quite a few loans with Chartered Trust & Savings, but can't find their whereabouts... or even if they still exist but under a different name...

Yep... sounds about right!

Not only that, but there's another payment that I used to get (Winter Fuel ?) which pensioners are automatically entitled to, and that hasn't arrived either... wondering if, perhaps , I've died and nobody has bothered to inform me...

I can really identify with the OP. I know this is an old thread and I hope it all worked out for her.

I am now in that position, having sold the house which had a charging order & with a pending forced sale, I had to sell my home very quickly.

There wasn't enough equity left over to buy anything else and given my age, & debts, no hope of another mortgage.

I was able to buy a small piece of land, though, which had B1 use... I thought I'd rent for a year whilst setting up a business & this income would eventually pay the rent.

However, there have been problems, re planning permission, so here I am with not very much left in the kitty and where outgoings are exceeding my & my husband's incomes from state pensions.

We have been paying the rent in advance, as this was the only way we could find anywhere to live. When we sold our house we paid the landlord 6 months up front, followed by another 6 months rental back in October. In 6 weeks time the rent will be due again, but this time we lack the funds to pay as our savings are about to run out.

I need to hold onto some money for fees for the planning application & then hopefully, if all goes well, I can work towards supporting myself in my retirement.

It may be that we can claim pension credit and housing/council tax benefit, being as we have so little to live on, so I guess that is the best place to start... otherwise, no idea what happens at the end of March, when the tenancy needs renewing.

Many thanks for listening!

The hazard of abbreviations!

 

I'd guess "autism spectrum disorder", but could be wrong.

(Atrial septal defect??)

So many abreviations on this forum... sometimes extremely difficult to follow the plot!

I am a pensioner with a very low income and was getting the Warm Home Discount (EOn) before I moved into rented housing with a British Gas pre-payment meter.

When I applied for the discount, they said the account at this address is not registered in my name. I tried offering the landlord's name, but they can't tell me whose name is on the account because of data privacy. The house is owned by more than one person and I don't know all their names.

No idea what to do next...

I think there should be a Govt body helping people with their claims... Many people just can't do this stuff for themselves... and then end up giving a large chunk of their compensation to companies who do the work on their behalf...

Oh... it's commission... but how would you know if they'd earned commission... they are hardly likely to own up to it, especially when they deny PPI even existed, as in my case which had to be sorted out by the Ombudsman... What about people who sell insurance/pensions who earn commission ... or is that different?

Be prepared for them to deny the loan ever existed, which is what they did to me, despite me having the original agreement! Took a while to sort out via Ombudsman.

Don't let them tell you their records don't go back that far... My PPI claim was for a loan which I took out in 1987.

What is 'Plevin', please?

Hello... I'm not sure how to post this, but here goes...

I believe I may be entitled to the Warm Home Discount. My home is rented and the gas & electricity is on a prepayment key.

The problem is that the accounts are in the landlord's name.

I contacted British Gas, but they say I'd need to change the accounts into my own name to apply for WHD.

Is this possible?

Mant thanks.

Hi Caggers... also long time no speak... I wondered if I could join in and have a moan about parking tickets...

In my case, I'm guilty, though... this happened just 10 minutes ago... I stopped my car on a taxi rank to post a letter...was less than a minute and see he's already taking a pic of my car... I sat in the car whist he finished writing it out, apologising all the while, then he chucked the ticket through my open window and said 'See you in court'

I just feel so annoyed at the rudeness... he entered the worng make of car, too!

Sorry to gatecrash... I can't find the right place to start a thread.

Kind regards, Dookist.

Their systems are always down.. probably a way of racking up more money.

Yeah... that's what I thought... (CPR 6.4(1);

I sent two copies of the claim form to the court, and 4 weeks later, having heard nothing, I asked for default judgment. The Court asked me for my Certificate of service. This is the High Court (Queens' Bench), too! At no time did I elect to serve the claim form myself... So what are the rules? Dookist

I think all service should be by email... it's quicker and safer...especially where they are time sensitive, as most service is. I've had posted documents go missing en route at least 6 times! Dookist.

I think there are time limits to argue a decision.. Dookist