Summonsed for Council Tax non-payement

I have received a Summons to attend Camberwell Magistrates Court for Non-Payment of Council Tax. My arrears = £27. The Summons will cost me a further £65.

The architect of the policy of making the poorest recipients of means-tested benefit contribute, anyway, and sue them if they fail is Duncan Whitfield, Southwark's Director of Finance who, in 2010-11, paid himself £163.367.

In April, I wrote to Mr Whitfield, asking him to justify this inequity. He has not replied.

absolutely disgusting. here's what we just published. if anyone else received summonses, please get in touch
http://www.peoplesrepublicofsouthwark.co.uk/hold-news/news/3182-summons-time

The demand is actually for £63, but I have actually been paying, erratically, in cash at the Walworth Road office, so my arrears is actually £27.

Crystal, on the phone, told me to pay it today and report it paid on Tuesday - when it will show on their system - to cancel the Summons, dodge the £65 fee and not lose the right to continue to pay in instalments. So, I paid.

I wish I had the nerve to argue that this tax on those who can least afford it contravenes the Council's own guidelines, which dictate that they should work to promote equality in the Borough. Instead of that, Southwark Council is robbing the poor to pay the sky-high salaries of some of the most lavishly remunerated public officials in this Country!

FYI, Southwark Citizens' Advice Bureau is having an informal advice session at Blackfriars Advice Centre, Cambridge House, 1 Addington Square, SE5 0HF on Oct.9th, 2-6pm.

I was in Trafalgar Square on March 31st, 1990.

We fought the law, but the law won...

The Poll Tax was meant to replace the 'rates', but once it was implemented, LBS raised the rent for Council Tenants by the exact amount of the previously exacted rates, so the Poll Tax was an additional charge.

Going through the same - I apparently historically have owed just over 19 quid since 2007 - Southwark unable to tell me why and for what period I owe this - was on then full CT Benefit or work -the later paid religiously- court summons for it a week ago... said if they can tell when it was for I will pay- this debacle has gone on nearly 6 years..... the only winners in this are the bailiff companies and of course the charges Southwark stick on!

kory, how much are you being taken to court for? there should be a date of the period for the arrears on the summons itself?

there is absolutely no excuse - the whole idea was just vicious from the start, considering that those that DO have money (those we bailed out so they can give themselves millions of bonuses) continue to be pampered.

that our council, while going out of their way to please global developers, decided to hit out at the most vulnerable is as vile.

Can you tax the (very) rich? There is always a way for them to avoid paying. Rich individuals and companies employ tax accountant to help them pay as little as possible.Panorama on the BBC dealt with this issue. It happens in most countries. I find it wrong but also naive to think you can fight it.
You should read "les animaux maladies de la peste" Jean de la Fontaine. It is very short as it is a fable and the morale at the end is very interesting. You can easily find a translating on Google/Bing!

serge wrote:

... I find it wrong but also naive to think you can fight it.

Likesay, I am not so naive. I wish I did think there would be some point to arguing the toss before a magistrate, but I doubt if I'd even be given a chance to speak if I attended court on Oct.18th.

serge wrote:

You should read "les animaux maladies de la peste" Jean de la Fontaine. It is very short as it is a fable and the morale at the end is very interesting. You can easily find a translating on Google/Bing!

I did that & am no wiser:

'I had no right. My conscience warned me to say nay!"
At that, the assembly shouted, "Shame upon the Ass!"
And then a Wolf, a preacher of the saintly class,
Declaimed that nothing less sufficed
Than that this curséd beast posthaste be sacrificed,
This scabby, scurvy object, source of these bad events.
His minor tort became a capital offense.
How gross a crime it was to eat another's grass!
No penalty short of death could pay
For such a sin—and that is just what came to pass
Without appreciable delay.

Depending on your social height,
The law will see your crime as black—or else as white.'

The morale of the fable is that the animals suffering from the pest are punishing the donkey instead of the lion or the bear which committed real crimes. La Fontaine (17th Century) tells us it is easier to take it on the weak than the powerful ones.
Good luck.

We also got a summons and I got very upset as I had called the CT line at southwark when we had missed a pyament and they said as long as we paid that it would be ok. next thing I know we have a baliffs letter and I have to send my employer's contact information to Duncan Whitfield. I have never felt so ashamed.