I never knew local councils had the power to do this.....

[Don Barzini]

I own a small business and employ a few people. Generally my staff don't give me too many headaches, but something reared up yesterday which I was very shocked about.

I received a letter from a neighbouring local council. (Neither the council where my business nor my home premises are located, I might add). The letter was about a person who left my employment 3 months ago. Long story short it said that a couple of weeks ago, a judgement was made by a local magistrates court against this person for non payment of council tax. They were writing to me because they said I had been identified as this person's employer and so therefore I had to make deductions from their wages to cover the bill and the fine. Essentially, they were enforcing the collection of the debt onto me!

The letter itself was pretty threatening in its tone. There was a warning that if I didn't comply with it I would find myself in trouble and liable for fines and further action!

Anyway I wrote back to them immediately, pointing out that the person was no longer employed by me and gave the date they left. I politely but firmly asked them to update their records to reflect that I am no longer their employer and not to write to me about this matter again. I'm hoping that is the last I hear of it.

So yeah, I was just a bit shocked. I've been a business owner for 7 years and honestly never knew local councils had the power to say to a small business "Your employee's debt with us is now yours to collect. You have no choice in the matter. If you don't sort it out, you're in trouble as well". You learn something new every day, but it just sounds crazy to me!!

 

[Hobbit]

It’s an attachment of earnings order. It’s not uncommon.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

It’s an attachment of earnings order. It’s not uncommon.

Yep and sometimes it can be a right pain. Do quite a lot of payroll processing, payrolls are a lot more of a pain than they used to be.

Hope you are also enjoying being a pension collector

 

[ManinBlack]

Not only local councils, anyone can go to court & get an Attachment of Earnings order. My daughter used to work in our local council's payroll department. The council had attachment of earnings orders against its own employees!

 

[doublebogey7]

Attachments of orders have been around for a very long time, I was collecting them whilst working in a payroll office nearly forty years ago. However, the power lies with the court and not the local authority.

 

[chrisd]

I obtained a few on debtors over the years, I even got an order prohibiting a debtor from selling their house without my permission so that I could get my payment owed beforehand, or i could refuse to let them sell in case they were to do a runner without paying

 

[Foxholer]

Not only local councils, anyone can go to court & get an Attachment of Earnings order. My daughter used to work in our local council's payroll department. The council had attachment of earnings orders against its own employees!

They have to get an AofE order in order to recover the debt via deduction from salary. It makes no difference whether it's one of their own employees or not.

 

[Hobbit]

Yep and sometimes it can be a right pain. Do quite a lot of payroll processing, payrolls are a lot more of a pain than they used to be.

Hope you are also enjoying being a pension collector

It’s a hard life, and 6 years away from state pension.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

It’s a hard life, and 6 years away from state pension.

I meant my comment to mean an 'auto-enrolment' pension collector as Don Barzini said 'collection of debt onto me', bit like having to collect the PAYE/NIC, pension etc (rather than you collecting a state/other pension)

Oh whoops, think I worded that comment very poorly to possibly for it to be read wrongly like that, sorry about that. Probably should not have quoted you but I was agreeing with you completely, whoops. Apologies certainly wasn't meant that way.

 

[Hobbit]

I meant my comment to mean an 'auto-enrolment' pension collector as Don Barzini said 'collection of debt onto me', bit like having to collect the PAYE/NIC, pension etc (rather than you collecting a state/other pension)

Oh whoops, think I worded that comment very poorly to possibly for it to be read wrongly like that, sorry about that. Probably should not have quoted you but I was agreeing with you completely, whoops. Apologies certainly wasn't meant that way.

No apology needed. I’m retired, sat in the sun and warming up towards 20*. Another shorts and t-shirt day, not collecting anything bar the sun’s rays.

 

[ManinBlack]

They have to get an AofE order in order to recover the debt via deduction from salary. It makes no difference whether it's one of their own employees or not.

Don't think I said it did.

 

[Deleted member 18645]

When I worked at the House of Commons, I had to enforce one against an MP who had refused to pay his poll tax.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

My business is 2 months away from completion of collecting a council tax debt for one of our employees. I also didn't know it was a thing before the letter arrived last year. I thought it was a scam, not so. A pain for us and we have warned the employee that we will charge them for the privilege if it happens again, you can charge a small amount, an admin charge. It's a token thing but gets the point across and covers the biscuit costs for a few weeks.

In terms of debt, always pay your council tax. Councils are very aggressive in terms of collection.

 

[ManinBlack]

My business is 2 months away from completion of collecting a council tax debt for one of our employees. I also didn't know it was a thing before the letter arrived last year. I thought it was a scam, not so. A pain for us and we have warned the employee that we will charge them for the privilege if it happens again, you can charge a small amount, an admin charge. It's a token thing but gets the point across and covers the biscuit costs for a few weeks.

In terms of debt, always pay your council tax. Councils are very aggressive in terms of collection.

You'll have to bring the biscuits next time we play

 

[ColchesterFC]

I got an attachment of earnings for Mrs Colch as she's on the books of my company. Due to a mix up with car insurance when moving house we got pinged for no insurance and along with forgetting to change the details on the car registration when we moved house didn't get any of the letters about the fine. I got the letter and phoned them up as we had no idea what it was about. Eventually I just paid the balance in one hit on my company debit card and Mrs Colch is now having £50 per month deducted from her wages to clear it.

 

[IanM]

An attachment of earnings is (or was when I worked in that Field) a remedy open to anyone pursuing a debt in the County Court... not just a council!

 

[Sweep]

As others have said, they are quite common.
As a small business owner if you check any communication from the government, be it PAYE, VAT, rates, tax etc somewhere in the communication there will be a threat. It’s the default way the country deals with its own people and it needs to change.