Hyndburn council's Accrington cash office closing

[SPUGGIE J]

Originally Posted by Lilly

When I set my direct debit up I seem to recall being given a choice of dates. The reason being that people get paid at varying times of the month.

I was always paid on the 15th but as I stated if the 15th fell on a Monday the bams tried to draw it on 12th.

[claytonender]

Originally Posted by Lilly

When I set my direct debit up I seem to recall being given a choice of dates. The reason being that people get paid at varying times of the month.

You are assuming that everyone has the ability to pay by DD.

There are a lot of people who are on a limited income, can not pay by Direct Debit because, although they may have a bank account, they do not have a bank account that allows them to pay by DD. Also banks are making it more difficult for people to get current accounts and some are even refusing to let people have basic bank accounts.

Also it is irresponsible of HBC to expect people to pay by a method, that might involve them getting into debt. Councils should be showing some social responsibilty in the way it treats its Council Tax Payers.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by claytonender

You are assuming that everyone has the ability to pay by DD.

There are a lot of people who are on a limited income, can not pay by Direct Debit because, although they may have a bank account, they do not have a bank account that allows them to pay by DD. Also banks are making it more difficult for people to get current accounts and some are even refusing to let people have basic bank accounts.

Also it is irresponsible of HBC to expect people to pay by a method, that might involve them getting into debt. Councils should be showing some social responsibilty in the way it treats its Council Tax Payers.

How can paying by direct debit as opposed to in person get someone into debt?

If your council tax is £120 a month then you will pay £120 a month to the council whether you pay at the office or on direct debit, won't you?

If you're going overdrawn to pay your council tax you'll be going overdrawn whether you withdraw the cash from the cashpoint to pay at the office or you have it going out on direct debit.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by claytonender

You are assuming that everyone has the ability to pay by DD.

There are a lot of people who are on a limited income, can not pay by Direct Debit because, although they may have a bank account, they do not have a bank account that allows them to pay by DD. Also banks are making it more difficult for people to get current accounts and some are even refusing to let people have basic bank accounts.

Also it is irresponsible of HBC to expect people to pay by a method, that might involve them getting into debt. Councils should be showing some social responsibilty in the way it treats its Council Tax Payers.

well thats cos some just take fer granted- its fine fer me, so it must be fer everyone elseaint a problem fer me, am aware of some that it would be.

[accyman]

if the council take a direct debit before its due day and a persons benefit or wages havnt gone in then it gets refused and a bank charge is made which although £30 may not be a lot to some people £30 missing out of some peoples accounts would mean that person not eating that week or having to go without gas or electricity

well done HBC in finding yet another problem for poorer folk to contend with

i pay cash over the counter and point blank refuse to set up any kind of direct debit with HBC as they have cost me a lot of money in the past

[claytonender]

Originally Posted by Lilly

How can paying by direct debit as opposed to in person get someone into debt?

If your council tax is £120 a month then you will pay £120 a month to the council whether you pay at the office or on direct debit, won't you?

If you're going overdrawn to pay your council tax you'll be going overdrawn whether you withdraw the cash from the cashpoint to pay at the office or you have it going out on direct debit.

You really don't appear to have any concept of what it is like to live on a very small income and also assume everyone has the right sort of bank account to pay by DD. Not everyone has a current account and as far as I am aware unless you have a current account you can not pay any bills by DD.

Have you ever had a DD go wrong? I don't just mean one for HBC, I know that banks guarantee to re-emburse the money but it is not a easy process and in the mean time bank cahrges can be accruing on an account.

Many older people have their pension paid into a Post Office Card Account and would only be able to pay their Council Tax in cash. Also many people prefer to deal in cash and some people probably pay their council Tax weekly, when they get paid.

[claytonender]

Originally Posted by accyman

if the council take a direct debit before its due day and a persons benefit or wages havnt gone in then it gets refused and a bank charge is made which although £30 may not be a lot to some people £30 missing out of some peoples accounts would mean that person not eating that week or having to go without gas or electricity

well done HBC in finding yet another problem for poorer folk to contend with

i pay cash over the counter and point blank refuse to set up any kind of direct debit with HBC as they have cost me a lot of money in the past

This is exactly what I have been trying to point out myself.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by accyman

if the council take a direct debit before its due day and a persons benefit or wages havnt gone in then it gets refused and a bank charge is made which although £30 may not be a lot to some people £30 missing out of some peoples accounts would mean that person not eating that week or having to go without gas or electricity

well done HBC in finding yet another problem for poorer folk to contend with

i pay cash over the counter and point blank refuse to set up any kind of direct debit with HBC as they have cost me a lot of money in the past

Why would they take it before the pre-arranged date?

Even if they did do this and you were charged as a result I'm pretty sure that if you were to provide evidence that you had incurred a fee the council would re-imburse you if it was their fault.

[claytonender]

Originally Posted by Lilly

Why would they take it before the pre-arranged date?

Even if they did do this and you were charged as a result I'm pretty sure that if you were to provide evidence that you had incurred a fee the council would re-imburse you if it was their fault.

I just hope you never have to try to get any charges back because any of your DD's were taken early.

[cashman]

Lilly are you reading the posts? some cannot wait weeks fer a cash mistake to be rectified or are ya just not bothered?

[Bonnyboy]

Originally Posted by Lilly

I don't know why people want to go to the office and queue up to pay their council tax. Can you explain please?

Why don't you get it on direct debit?

This way the money will go out of your account every month and you will not have to spend time queuing.

I've had mine on direct debit for 8 years now. I've never had a problem with it.

Once set up a DD with them but they didn’t take the payment. Three months later I got a snotty letter telling me that I had to pain full. Rang them explained the problem, the outcome was that the payment was condensed into 5 monthly payments as opposed to 10 ( it took them 2 months to sort out ) Never again.

Also have the T - Shirt that accyman and lancsdave have. I pay over the phone now ( christ, do they only have one line or what ? ) I give my debit card number and get a Ref No as proof of payment. Got a similar type snotty letter as previous. Luckily I keep all my paperwork up to date, somehow there had been an error on their part and the payment had not been taken. Bloody pain to sort out.

About 3 years ago I used to pay at the Town Hall. I went down to pay what I thought was my last instalment. Payment was duly accepted. I came home to find that I had paid one month too much. I rang them up some 20min after paying them asking if they would just stick the cash back in my account. Hell no…that was far too easy. They needed me to state my case in writing and they would look into it.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by claytonender

You really don't appear to have any concept of what it is like to live on a very small income and also assume everyone has the right sort of bank account to pay by DD. Not everyone has a current account and as far as I am aware unless you have a current account you can not pay any bills by DD.

Have you ever had a DD go wrong? I don't just mean one for HBC, I know that banks guarantee to re-emburse the money but it is not a easy process and in the mean time bank cahrges can be accruing on an account.

Many older people have their pension paid into a Post Office Card Account and would only be able to pay their Council Tax in cash. Also many people prefer to deal in cash and some people probably pay their council Tax weekly, when they get paid.

You don't appear to have any concept of direct debit.

Yes, it is possible that mistakes could be made with direct debit but it is also possible that you could be mugged of your cash on your way to pay at the offices.....you can't keep looking for problems....do you want the mayor to come round to your house to personally collect the cash from you?

I do feel sorry for the elderly as I did when post offices were recently closed, in a way it's a similar story and I do understand what you've said about people who can't get a current account....although if they can't get a current account they must be hard up so they probably don't pay their council tax anyway.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by cashman

Lilly are you reading the posts? some cannot wait weeks fer a cash mistake to be rectified or are ya just not bothered?

Of course I am bothered. I just don't think the chances of it happening are all that high.

[Bonnyboy]

Originally Posted by Lilly

Of course I am bothered. I just don't think the chances of it happening are all that high.

Well it happened to me, see above. I'm sure I'm not alone

[cmonstanley]

bullcrap it does happen a lot thats why i pay cash .this is them giving you less choices to pay .i like paying cash for everything.this is a scandal another cut by tories.does this mean job losses to compensate for th black hole of millions ...this means taking money out of the local economy by paying the big pay point companies.instead of paying local people wages..another empty building