Are you being overcharged for Council Tax?
By Jayne Warren - 29/02/2008
The rising cost of Council Tax has hit the UK's pensioners harder than any other sector of the population - and as our postbag reveals, thousands of readers are furious about it. Just recently a former soldier was jailed for 34 days after declaring that he would not settle his £1,359 council tax bill, and now The Sunday Telegraph has reported that the government has "covered up" the fact that thousands of people have been "wrongly banded" - in other words, over charged.
Apparently ministers and officials have known since at least 2005 that many homes were placed in the wrong tax bands. The miscalculations could have affected up to 400,000 homes, and it is still not known how far back the over-payments go. According to the Sunday Telegraph on February 24th: "Although the errors were relatively simple and could have been corrected painlessly, ministers chose to keep the matter secret."
The overpaid sums may reach tens of millions of pounds, which the Government are not overly anxious to refund - to say nothing of the adverse publicity it would create.
The Sunday Telegraph claims that the cover-up only emerged after ministers were forced to reveal, for the first time, full details of the background to their controversial decision in October 2005 to postpone a full-scale revaluation of homes in England which had been scheduled for May 2007.
The Council Tax Revaluation Board report was finally published a few days ago, and although key sections were blacked out, the supposedly "secret sections" of text were still legible. One key passage, which ministers tried to hide, showed that homes were found to be in the wrong band but that officials were too worried to admit the mistake.
Based on the experience in Wales - where 1·85% of homes were found to have been placed in the wrong council tax band - the number of homes affected in England could be as many as 400,000, dating as far back as 1993.
Whitehall sources said that the Department for Local Government and Communities (DCLG) claimed that it did not hold figures on the number of homes that would need to move bands, because this exercise was done only after a property was sold. However, a spokesman said that: "Anyone who has evidence that they are in too high a band can request a review. If successful, they will also qualify for a rebate."
Eric Pickles, the shadow local government secretary, told the Sunday Telegraph: "Thanks to a colossal blunder, the cat is out of the bag ... It is scandalous and shocking that the Government has found out that many homes could be wrongly banded, but have refused to correct these errors to avoid paying refunds and incurring bad press coverage.
Albert Venison, President of the Devon Pensioners Association Forum (DPAF), ran a survey on what pensioners most struggle to afford - and Council Tax came out top of the list. He said: "Council Tax is by far the most unaffordable expense for more than 65% out of every hundred pensioners."
And a letter from Mature Times' reader Mr. Saunders, sounded a chilly note with regards to overpayment of Council Tax. He wrote: "In August 2007, as a result of Council Tax rebanding, I was refunded £2,100 back dated to 1998, when we moved into the property. This sum represented the "face value" of the overcharging and included no interest, which, when compounded, I assess to be approximately £400.
"The local council says they have no intention of paying this interest as it would have to be absorbed by other Council Tax payers! This is totally immoral, as I am effectively paying £400 for the Council's error. There must be many hundreds of thousands of householders in this situation.
"Not only that, but soon after moving in to my current property, I challenged the Tax Band and took it to tribunal in Kendal where the council representatives expressed their sympathy but rejected my claim on the technical grounds that my claim fell two months outside the "six month rule" in small print on the reverse of the Council Tax advice note!"
A Treasury spokesman said - unsurprisingly - that the report had been "grossly exaggerated ... We do not recognise the large numbers quoted."
If you think you may have been wrongly banded, do take the time to find out - it could save you a lot of money. A helpful website is the IsItFair? campaign, linked below.