Today's report of a woman on the Arbourthorne receiving 72 letters in one day, from the Council may convince the doubters , at last , that Red Tape , in this country ,is really meant to drive people completely round the twist.
It wasn't a computer error or a clerical mistake----in fact the Council go on to defend their action. I've never heard of anything as stupid as this before ----but , if , as the Council says, they are legally bound to send the 72 letters in one day , due to the government's rules , doesn't this still say something about the government rules ? One way or another , something's wrong somewhere ?
At the same time , sad to read about the death of Patience Sheard , one of the stalwarts of the old Sheffield Council. In the days when she was active-----after the War and into the '70's , Sheffield City Council seemed quite a sensible body and was much admired by working -class people across the country.

Just been reading the Sheffield Star online and couldn't believe my eyes when I read this story.

A WOMAN has slammed Sheffield Council for "wasting taxpayers' cash" after receiving SEVENTY-TWO council tax letters in just one day.

Can you believe it, at the end of the article we're informed that the woman is actually in credit with her council tax and will be getting a refund.

What is happening here, all that postage, the poor postie must have been wondering what the hell had happened.

I posted about this yesterday {?} and last time I looked there were no replies. Perhaps people thought it was a poor sort of April Fool's joke. Either that or a lot of Sheffield people don't care what bizarre activities the Council get up to. When it comes to local elections , there seems to be the same apathy.

I don't think it's a matter of not caring, It's just another non-news that the Star often run. There obviously weren't any 'chip pan fire in ...' stories that day.

So she got 72 letters, what's that add up to, about 15 quid? It's hardly going to bankrupt the city is it. Someone in the council tax department cocked-up is all.

Originally posted by Fearful
I don't think it's a matter of not caring, It's just another non-news that the Star often run. There obviously weren't any 'chip pan fire in ...' stories that day.

So she got 72 letters, what's that add up to, about 15 quid? It's hardly going to bankrupt the city is it. Someone in the council tax department cocked-up is all.
Fully agree.

From the article in the Star:

"Steve Cowley, of the Corp-orate Finance Department at Sheffield Council, said: "By law we must inform claimants of each and every period of entitlement when there is a change to their benefit claim.
"Ms Barson has kept us informed every time her circumstances change, resulting in significant changes to her benefits entitlement over a period of time."

Notice the line "By law we must inform claimants of each and every period of entitlement when there is a change to their benefit claim"

So it's not a choice the council could make then is it...

...and if Ms Barson hadn't kept running to the council tax office every time she changed the colour of her nail polish, they wouldn't have been needed, and no "wasting taxpayers' cash" would have happened.

Summary, numpty complains about non-story, other numpties publish it as the "main news" item of the day.

:rolleyes:

The point that was avoided in the article is "Why all these letters arrived at once?"
A change of circumstances warrants a letter. But, as the official stated, these were over a period of time.
Someone probably cocked-up and, letters were not sent out when they should have been and now they are playing catch-up.

Originally posted by cgksheff
The point that was avoided in the article is "Why all these letters arrived at once?"
A change of circumstances warrants a letter. But, as the official stated, these were over a period of time.
Someone probably cocked-up and, letters were not sent out when they should have been and now they are playing catch-up.
Granted, somebody made a mistake...

...but sending them out at the right time wouldn't have cost any more or any less.

"Woman gets late letters", not exactly front page news is it?

Well, according to the Star, yes. :rolleyes:

Another aspect of this is , can you in your wildest dreams think that this is a one-off ?
How many tax payers do they deal with ? How much , I wonder do they spend on mail ? How many other cock-ups are there that are not as spectacular as this one ?
Admittedly , it all stems from a government directive , but it's still taxpayers money that is being squandered. I can't imagine that the Arbourthorne lady is the only victim of the government's over-complicated system that causes these blunders.I read somewhere that even professional tax inspectors can't fathom out the ambiguities and so on within our tax system.

The most I got in one go was 11 - and it wasnt because i kept running to the council tax office every time i changed my nail polish!
my partner and i separated last summer for acouple of months, and as i moved out i informed them of the change. I was a student and had left my course so i informed them of that change, then i then informed them we had got back together 3 months later (in september). We have only just received the ammended bills!! all 11 of them in one go - well, 10 ammendments and the new one for this year!

:D :clap: :D :hihi:

Originally posted by Fareast
Another aspect of this is , can you in your wildest dreams think that this is a one-off ?
How many tax payers do they deal with ? How much , I wonder do they spend on mail ? How many other cock-ups are there that are not as spectacular as this one ?
Admittedly , it all stems from a government directive , but it's still taxpayers money that is being squandered. I can't imagine that the Arbourthorne lady is the only victim of the government's over-complicated system that causes these blunders.I read somewhere that even professional tax inspectors can't fathom out the ambiguities and so on within our tax system.
Hmmm, two points spring to mind in regard to the above post,

1) If (and it's a big if) this is indeed an endemic problem, why don't the Star do some real investigation and report on it properly. Now that would be worthy of a front page spread.

2) Describing the lady as a "victim" seems a little strong, it's not like the weight of these 72 letters crushed her pet hamster is it.
She's making a real meal out of nothing much, and using it as an excuse to get her fizzog in the local rag, hardly the stuff that makes a "victim".

That was the problem with the article in the first place in my opinion, no sense of proportion.

:)

All that postage could have been spent on various resources or fixing holes in the road.

I feel sorry for the recipient she must have felt totally harrassed by the council.

We rely too much on technology letting machines churn out those letters.Or perhaps it was human error but they choose to put blame elsewhere.

Originally posted by teabird
All that postage could have been spent on various resources or fixing holes in the road.
Originally posted by Fearful
So she got 72 letters, what's that add up to, about 15 quid?
Ahh, if only our roads neaded just £15 worth of repairs. :rolleyes:

I'm still waiting for my council tax bill, should have had it at the beginning of march, several calls since then and i still don't have a bill!

I have had to phone them today and make a payment by phone because i bet it wouldn't take four calls and over a month to get a threatening letter telling me to pay.

I could understand it if i had moved recently but i've been here for over 3 years. I've come to the conclusion that they are just useless.

Originally posted by teabird
All that postage could have been spent on various resources or fixing holes in the road.

I feel sorry for the recipient she must have felt totally harrassed by the council.

We rely too much on technology letting machines churn out those letters.Or perhaps it was human error but they choose to put blame elsewhere.

I don't think paper works very well for filling in potholes.

This is basically non-news as foo said. Whether it's human error or a computer feature doesn't matter.

It doesn't seem unreasonable that when your council tax changes that they inform you, so the only issue here really is the lateness.