As I have mentioned on here before I think, I allegedly owe the local council £149 odd from last years tax account. This strangely has risen to £215 plus. We are in dispute yet they have issued an attachment of earnings to my employer to recover the money they claim I owe them. Fair enough give them enough rope........

Today I check my bank account to make sure I have enough in there to buy some little amount of sustenance to find I am around £70 better off than I thought I was. Whey hey!

But no: further investigation shows that the wonderkids at Darlo council have not made the poll tax withdrawal I have authorised them to do. In some panic I call the department. I speak to a lovely person who ultimately is unable to assist me but is sympathetic to my cause. I signed a Direct debit authorisation for the council to extract £68 of my hard earned from the 1st of June 2009 in a vain attempt to avoid the sort of dispute I am in with them over the alleged shortfall for 2008/9. 

Stupidly I did not check my bank accounts for June as I had other money coming in and was not to worried about the direct debits due. I had enough to cover them and the dough to pay for my First Aid couse aswell.

So in effect what has happened is that Darlo BC have not taken the £136 for the past 2 months as expected by, and authorised by, me. The person I was speaking with could find no reason why the money had not been comes into playApparently not. The convenient computers downs syndrome comes into play. However I can restart the payments from 1st August. OK go ahead do it. Righty ho, so from the first of August we will take £88 odd per month from your account.

HOLD ON A BLINKING MINUTE!!!!

I explain that I have had to bite the proverbial bullet to find the £68 and that £88 per month is a physical impossibility, what if I pay the £68 pounds I have spare in my account now now and allieviate the pressure. 

Yes this is possible but alas the system is down and we cannot take payments over the phone or on line, and in any case this will bring my monthly payment down to £77 per month. More than I can afford I tell the lowly clerk. Her advice.

Go and see the CAB and inform them of the councils ineptitude and get a financial statement drawn up. 

This is a cock up by the council, not by me (for once) and still I am being hammered. 

I have a meeting with a solicitor tomorrow afternoon about the attachment order for last years alleged deficit, I shall throw this into the mix and look forward to my day in the courts.

I feel better now having written all this out hwever incoherent it may seem to you the poor reader..

Hopefully normal service will resume soon.