Hyndburn council's Accrington cash office closing
 

THE Hyndburn Council cash office at Accrington Town Hall is set to close after it was discovered that very few residents used the facility.
Bosses at the authority said that only a small percentage of people paid their council tax or other bills at the office in Blackburn Road.
Now alternative ways to pay are being promoted, after a review revealed into the service was completed.
Coun Marlene Haworth, said: “We are letting people know that there are many alternative ways of paying, for example by Direct Debit or standing order, by telephone or via the internet.
“People can also use a payment swipecard which is accepted at over 150 outlets across the borough, including Post Offices, Woolworths and many local newsagents.”
The cash office at Accrington Town Hall will close from September 30.

I have a better idea!.......lets scrap the council tax altogether:D

its bad enough finding places to pay my utility bills, now i have to find away to pay my council tax!, doent the council not think i have better things to do :mad:

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I used it last year and there was a queue a mile long :confused:

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I wouldnt mind but they only use 1 person anyway:rolleyes:

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swipe cards that dont work properly or the machines in the shops constantly break down,spend all day in a que on the phone ?

thats 2 alternatives that need improving before they start to stop people paying cold hard cash

i wouldnt mind if HBC could keep track of their payments , i liek many others have had nasty letters saying i havnt paid when i damn well have but because they dont accuse you of not paying untill months later it can be hard to find the recipts even if you pay with a card like i did they still manage to say you havnt paid

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I've got that t-shirt too, paid direct on the council website and they managed to pay off somebody else's account with my money :mad:

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this is just cost cutting with weak excuses when in fact if HBC hadnt blown its budget these cuts wouldnt be needed

i use the kiosk and to be honest its bad enough that it closes at 3pm and i dont know where this woman gets her info because its always busy when i go

whats next ?

wheelie bin collections every 4 weeks to save wages and fuel

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.....and it dont open until 10!

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and its not gurenteed somone will be sat there to take your money should you be lucky enough to get time off during work to go pay your bill

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This is a link to the report that went to Cabinet on 18 June.
http://www.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/downloa...ernisation.pdf

There are 28994 households who pay by cash in Hyndbrun of these 3386 households pay in cash at the Town Hall and another 884 households pay by cheque at the counter and 906 households send a cheque in to the Town Hall. This means that 17.85% of households use the collecting office. Only 6.78% of the electorate of Great Harwood voted in the Town Council 'consulation' but they this is going to be explored further.

At the Cabinet meeting Marlene Howarth welcomed this move, but for many people it is their only personal contact with Hyndburn Council. It also encourages people to use the shops in town after thery have visited the Town Hall.

If you want to save this service please protest to your local councillor.

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

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. :)

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I like many others don't trust the direct debit system.
Too many human errors in the system, payments into other accounts, debiting more than once, failure to cease debiting when account closed or changed.

I'm sure others can think of a lot more.

They can shove their direct debit where the sun doesn't shine.

Retlaw.

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I've never experienced any of that.

I've moved house twice and never had any trouble, just informed them that I'd moved and payments were adjusted without disruption.

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Is it cash payment only or a full services office? There are issues galore in paying wether its cash or DD ie if like me you were paid monthly and payday fell on a Monday they try and take it on a Friday when there is not enough cash to cover. Paying cash means queuing either at the cash desk or the post office. Been through it all and even though it is fortnightly payment for me I do it weekly.

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Used to pay mine there until i got a swipe card so i could pay at any payzone shop.Best thing i did.Just make sure i keep all my receipts together then if theres any discrepencies i've got all the evidence i need.I used to hate queuing up at the town hall to pay this poxy tax bill.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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

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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

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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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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? :rolleyes:

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.

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

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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 :rolleyes:

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The point is once again people are going to lose the right to make there own decision! A lot of older people still deal in cash and pay bills that way. Time they left things alone.

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I fully understand the concept of DD's. (possibly because I worked in accounts department for many years). But I also appreciate why many people choose not to pay bills by this method - not everyone is happy giving another company the right to deduct however much money that company wishes to from their bank account.

I am glad that you feel sorry for the elderly, but it is rather a sweeping statement that if you can't get a current account you must be hard up so probably don't pay council tax anyway. Many banks will only give new current accounts to people who have salary/pension credits of £1000 plus into the account every month. There are many people in this borough who have take home pay/pension of less than £1000 a month who are paying Council Tax.

Also there are lots of people who have wages etc paid into a savings account and would never want a current account.

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It's happening a lot.....it happened with the post offices and it was pointed out then that the people who would suffer were the hard up and the elderly.

I didn't mean to come accross as uncaring, it's just that I've had direct debits for all bills, not just HBC for 8 years and never had one problem.

I don't know anyone who has had a problem.....well, I didn't until this thread kicked off. It's come as news to me. :o

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There is a simple solution to all this. If people want to pay at the Town Hall then charge them the extra £2.00 or £2.50 depending on how they pay.

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i too have direct debits n had no problem, but i know people who have.

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Would that be every time they went to pay?? Why should they be charged extra for paying in cash?? The world has gone mad, do you not think a lot of old people are struggling enough with all the new things being introduced!!!

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Dont get me started on council tax and direct debits and standing orders etc. I had allsorts of hassles when mum died .... in fact im still sorting them out 2 1/2 yrs later. Mind you their council tax bit is now run by capita - and if hyndburn go that route i feel sorry for you all.

Rossendale Council's got rid of their cash office a few years ago. Now you pay at the post office by swipe card, by direct debit, by cheque, or by ringing them up and by credit/debit card or by standing order. I thought Hyndburn was the same i didnt know that they still had a cash office.

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I pay my council tax by DD,always have and have never had a problem,it seemed easier to do it that way and means i never forget about it,but i can understand that this isn't an option for everybody and elderly people could easily be confused by it when they are used to paying by cash in person.
I think its a bad idea closing the offices personally,i can't understand them saying hardly anybody uses it because every time i have been in its always packed.

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I pay all my bills Direct debit too and never had a problem but wouldn't suggest that there never can be..

what I don't understand is why people feel this is so bad... most people who use the cash office have complained about the longs queues and mistakes made at this office...!!

The issue regarding wanting to pay in cash still hasn't changed, in fact it is more convenient by using a payment card and pay at your local shop or any other payzone outlet which there are loads of all over the borough.. just make sure you keep the receipts which you would do if you were paying at the town hall!

We (twin valley) in Blackburn are just in the process of advising our tenants that we are phasing this option out to pay rent (don't know whether it will be for council tax though), but there are several ways in which they can pay... and yes it is a money saving exercise on our behalf but has only come to fruition when we felt there were enough options to pay other ways and with discussions with tenants on preference of ways they like to pay.

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I know you didn't Lilly just think things are going to far in the direction of no personal contact. Just hope they rethink this decision but very much doubt it:(

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as mentined before, the payment cards are unreliable and the machines that you use them with at the shops are unreliable , some old dear could end up having to walk across town just to use a machine that is working

at least when you go to the town hall and pay cash you know your money is going to be taken and your not going to have to trek across town in the hope that the next shops machine is working

mind you as long as everythings working ok for somone the rest of us that arnt so lucky can go screw ourselves i suppose

cash should come above any other kind of payment period ,if cash is such a bad thing why not do away with it all together and just have a chip slapped in our forheads that scans everytime we buy somthing

funny how the councils bailifs accept cash which are very quickly set upon you should you not have enough money in your account when the council take out your payments early

HBC are the most patheticly organised set of idiots i have ever had the displeasure of dealing with , they cause problems for people throgh their own stupidity then cover it up with threats of bailifs when it is their miscalculations or loss of payment details that is to blame and they sure dont like changing their minds without a good argument

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I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Hyndburn who are 'hard up', yet still manage to scrape the money together to pay this, and other bills.

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well said

i find the snotty attitude of those who everything is fine for pretty pathetic to say the least and they should remeber that even though some people can barely afford to pay their poll tax even when on benefits you still have a considerable percentage of your money to pay to HBC and the last thing people need is for been able to pay it been made even more difficult

sod you jack im ok springs to mind

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in a " Nutshell":(

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If you mean me then all I can say is I'm sorry.

I said a few posts ago that I certainly am bothered about others and that I didn't mean to come accross as uncaring. :(

I sympathise with the elderly and others who are going to struggle but having said that, no method is going to suit us all. For some people, having to go to the office would be a real hassle and a fuss would be made if ever direct debit were scrapped.


For many, direct debit is the most convenient way to pay, it's not just me who has never had a problem with it.

I see the point re lack of choice just as I did in the post office closure thread. I was against the post office closures. It was then pointed out to me in that thread that the powers that be are not going to keep a non-profitable venture going just to suit a few.

This appears to be a similar situation.

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with all the money problems HBC has you would think they would leave open every avenue they have possible to get money in lol

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Doing a bit of type-casting there aren't we?? How about a little experiment? Can you just try and open a current account at any bank without a passport or driving license? You'd get thrown out again!!
(Come to think of it you can have loads of problems everywhere if you haven't got 1 of those two forms of ID - but that's another moan!)
The number of ummm's and ahhh's I got just to add 'erindoors to my existing current account were enough :rolleyes:

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According to the Observer anybody wishing to pay cash will be able to pay at Woolworths.

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Woolworths is one of the payzone outlets, isn't it?

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No idea Lilly just glanced through the Observer at Mums and noticed the bit about paying there.

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Exactly!
I tried to add my husband onto my exsisting account and vice versa and because we didn't have a passport or full drivers license we were told no way!
Went to another bank and opened an account with them using our provisional licenses as i.d.
It's not about not being able to afford one it's all the red tape involved that might put people off getting one.

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Well to be quite honest I pay everything by DD and never had a problem, I even have my house insurace with HBC and pay that by SO

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so with the office shutting, does this mean they will send me a payment card automatically, or will I have to ring up?

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You can pay in Woolworths if you want to pay cash

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Ya panther you can, but stay away from the pick and mix:D