WHY!? rant, rave, vent

Ok... so I've just had my council tax bill through. I'm really REALLY annoyed - I had a payment plan all arranged with them, and now they say they've cancelled that agreement because I've not kept up to date with my payments. Now, this is after I let them know that I wouldn't be able to pay them and I'd catch up as soon as was possible for me. Not only that, but I'm trying to pay two bills - one for this year, one for last year and the one that Asa left me with, which has been the BIG sticking point, fortunately I managed to clear not very long ago. But in total I still owe them nearly £270 - this is AFTER having paid them £300 odd and then being told I still owed £300 more when I was told I'd cleared all of the debts. So... NOW they want me to pay £96 by the 28th... and then only three days later, they want me to pay up £170!! There is no way I can afford to pay that and they know it - oh and get this... our council tax has gone up. AGAIN!!! You know this area has seen our council tax rise by something like 30% since labour came into power. Can you guess who I'll not be voting for again? Good grief - in my line of vision I can see about 40 houses. Each pays at least £800 a year in council tax (Mine is just under £900) ok so you're looking at a rough estimate of £32,000 to £36,000 just from my line of vision. That will pay for ONE man to pick up litter for a year. And even then there are some weeks they don't even show up to do their jobs. But apparently "Moray Council provides efficient services in the area". Pull the other one. If they did that, we'd have good roads, better lighting (the streetlight outside my house was broken a month ago and STILL hasn't been fixed), I would have decent water running in my taps and sure as hell we wouldn't have to wait a month to get our bins emptied. We all know that the money just goes straight into fatcats pockets and nowhere near local services. So why do we have to pay so much? People in my position are just being sucked dry - I wonder if any of them have had to try to raise a kid, pay for gas, electricity, telephone, food, clothes, shoes and travel expenses on just £80 a week? It can be done, yes, but with some serious difficulty. And they wonder why this area has the highest debt levels? We have the lowest wage:highest council tax ratio in the whole of the UK. Oh it makes me so MAD!!!!

Emma are you saying that the council are wanting whatevers owed to them paid in full?

Ok i've just re read it through again and i see what they want!.

When i was with Richie he came with a lot of debts!. Working with accounts myself i know basics and from advice from Richies solicitor who said they can't make you pay what you havent got!.

The solicitor said as long as you offer the Queens head they can't refuse it and it's true!.

Richies creditors were all wanting about £20 per month but the solicitor said to put it down in writing what you can afford and normally they will accept it.

I acted on his behalf and offered them the lowest amount which was £5.00 per month and they all accepted it.

They send you letters trying to scare you!, i know this because we do it with our customers who don't pay, but miss one payment they will come down hard on you

If they know that you will pay say the first payment that their asking for then their going to be like vultures with you after that!.

Where i live it's classed as South Tyneside Council which is very good on all it's department.

At the moment i pay £57 per month and were known to be the cheapest place to live in the North East of England.

Pretty much - I've got to pay one installment on the 28th, and one on the 3rd. That gives me three days to find the money.

Emma, I'm sorry you're going through this right now. I have been in debt and understand what a very heavy burden it is to bare. I sure hope you are able to work out a payment plan that is acceptable for all involved.

Well, all I can do is give them what I do have.... if they want more, well I'm afraid that's tough luck. They can either accept what I can give them, or they can stick it. I've already shouted at them saying I won't pay for water until what comes out of my taps is water - I took a jar of "tap water" up and slammed it on their desk and asked them to tell me what it was. The closest they got was "milk". I've still not seen anyone to sort it out, but by heaven when I leave they're going to cop for some serious grief. It just makes me angry that they can demand so much money form someone in my position and yet have all the allowances in the world for someone who's earning a lot of money in a year. It's all based on the value of your property - if you're in a house to the value of about £200,000 you pay £2,000 in tax. If you're in a place like mine valued at £15,000 you pay £900. Now I think there could be something wrong with the maths there... don't you?

My house is like yours a terraced house, and it's market value is £80,000 but my council tax is no where near that, but a girl at work who lives in the centre of town which is the most expensive part to live in has a town house which is valued at £120,000, and she has to pay £1,500.00 a year.

Do you not pay your water rates seperately to your council tax?, mine goes to Northumbrian Water.

I wouldn't shout at them Emma as annoyed as you are because i get it here at work sometimes and honestly they don't get anywhere!. If anything, as awful as it sounds their the ones who get sorted out last because of the way they've bawled me out.

The best thing to do is to keep calm and try and get someone on your side who will understand because it always works

If you had a previous agreement with them to pay X amount by X date and then failed to meet that payment schedule, you could infact have just defaulted on their agreement. It is very common here at least, for the Gas & Power company to work out a "plan" with people who owe money. As long as the person pays the "arranged" amounts ON TIME, everything is great. If you miss even one payment's date, then the whole thing goes out the window and your back to just owing them whatever money you owe them at once. Since you generally have to agree to that in order to qualify for their "arrangement" you do not have a lot of recourse in that situation except to try to talk to them and come to another agreement. Although that is not exactly your situation, it seems similar to me.

I think you should go over their head about the light, the water and any other problem they are not directly addressing. Call their bosses and work your way up above them to the govener or whoemver is running your city/state/country. Call the news .. let them come see your water thats not fit for drinking and your full trash bins not being emptied or the unsafe lighting..or at least tell them you will do it. I am fairly sure those problems will get fixed if they get a little bit of public attention.

I am so sorry to hear about your money problems, I know they are never good and make life rougher then it needs to be for us all. I hope things work out for you and I wish you the best in dealing with the jerks that run your town.