The whole concept of 'real time data matching' may be deeply flawed.
For the words 'real time' imply, obviously, reality.
And though data matching is defined as comparing data sets to see how far they 'match' a 'mismatch' does not necessarily imply any 'real' problem in 'real time or space'.
Yet we know that the NFI is perfectly happy to provide lists of 'hits' which do not 'indicate' inconsistencies, but which only 'indicate' a potential inconsistency. Indeed, the data itself does not 'indicate' anything: it is the person interpreting it who does the 'indicating'.
It also produces lists of hits where the comparison is 'apparent' rather than 'real' as in the case of people who 'appear' to be in an inconsistent situation only to those who incorrectly understand council tax IT systems.
So 'real time' data matching seems likely to lead to yet more confusion and misunderstanding, especially if, as the signs suggest, they are still attempting to fit the square peg of the full electoral register into the round hole of IT systems used to administer CT discounts.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Discrepancies. Could these possibly be explained by stupidity or is there another, more likely explanation?
Audit Commission:
It is not clear where or in what context you say auditors have claimed to be checking
claims for single person discount.
Me:
Well now I have your secret guidelines, I can say that the context in which auditors have made that claim is in your hitherto secret Audit Guidelines, where it says this: This match addresses where the householder is claiming a council tax single person discount on the basis that they live alone yet the electoral register suggests that there is more than one person in the household aged 18 or over.
Audit Commission
To date, the Commission’s data matching exercises have only included those individuals
that an authority believes are entitled to the discount on the first basis, i.e. they are the
sole occupant of a property.
Me: If the authority is competent and law abiding, this is not true. This may be true in some cases, and the authorities in question (including Hillingdon, for example) may have believed this, but if so then the authorities were not administering the discount correctly, and they failed to obey the law as later spelled out to the NFI by Leah Griffiths. People have been subjected to criticism and what is basically defamatory comment by the NFI because it failed to grasp the basics of council tax discount law.
It is not clear where or in what context you say auditors have claimed to be checking
claims for single person discount.
Me:
Well now I have your secret guidelines, I can say that the context in which auditors have made that claim is in your hitherto secret Audit Guidelines, where it says this: This match addresses where the householder is claiming a council tax single person discount on the basis that they live alone yet the electoral register suggests that there is more than one person in the household aged 18 or over.
Audit Commission
To date, the Commission’s data matching exercises have only included those individuals
that an authority believes are entitled to the discount on the first basis, i.e. they are the
sole occupant of a property.
Me: If the authority is competent and law abiding, this is not true. This may be true in some cases, and the authorities in question (including Hillingdon, for example) may have believed this, but if so then the authorities were not administering the discount correctly, and they failed to obey the law as later spelled out to the NFI by Leah Griffiths. People have been subjected to criticism and what is basically defamatory comment by the NFI because it failed to grasp the basics of council tax discount law.
For once the Audit Commission got it right
To Roger Hamilton CC Nagina Akram
Correspondence received by the complaints unit at the Commission has raised a number of questions as to how entitlement to a council tax discount on the basis of being the only resident who does not fall to be disregarded for the purposes of the discount (which we shall call single person discount) works....
Section 10 sets out how the basic amount of council tax payable by a person
who is liable to pay council tax in respect of a chargeable dwelling is to be
calculated. Section 11(1) then states:-
“(1) The amount of council tax payable in respect of any chargeable dwelling
and any day shall be subject to a discount equal to the appropriate
percentage of that amount if on that day-
(a) there is only one resident of the dwelling and he does not fall to be
disregarded for the purposes of the discount; or
(b) there are two or more residents of the dwelling and each of them
except one falls to be disregarded for those purposes.”.
Regulation 14 provides that before making any calculation for the purposes of
Part V of the Regulations of the chargeable amount in respect of any dwelling
in its area, an authority shall take reasonable steps to ascertain whether that
amount is subject to a discount, and if so, the amount of that discount.
Regulation 15 provides that where having taken those reasonable steps ... an authority has reason to believe that the chargeable amount for the financial year concerned is subject to a discount of a particular amount, it shall assume, in making the calculation of the
chargeable amount, that the chargeable amount is subject to a discount of
that amount.
Regulation 16 goes on to provide that where a person-
(a) has been informed in accordance with any provision of demand notice
regulations [as to which see paragraph 12 below] of an assumption as
to discount made in his case; and
(b) at any time before the end of the financial year following the financial
year in respect of which the assumption is made has reason to believe
that the chargeable amount is not in fact subject to any discount, or is
subject to a discount of a smaller amount,
he shall, within the period of 21 days beginning on the day on which he first
has reason so to believe, notify the authority in writing of his belief.
A demand notice is a written notice that an authority must serve for each
financial year on every person liable to pay council tax under regulation 18, in
accordance with regulations 19-21.
Under regulation 20, the demand notice shall require the making of payments of the authority’s estimate of the chargeable amount made, as respects part or whole of the relevant year, on
various assumptions, including in regulation ... 20(3)(f) that
if, by virtue of regulation 15(2), the chargeable amount is assumed to be
subject to a discount on the day the notice is issued, that it will continue to be
subject to the same rate of discount as regards every day after the issue of
the notice.
23. Paragraph 47: Also within this exercise is a “Rising 18s” match which
identifies young people becoming an adult at 18 who live with a council tax
single person discount recipient. This age change could make many
recipients of the single person discount ineligible as they will not then be the
only adult living in the property ... [DN XXXXX XXXXX raised the point that no mention was made of disregards here and I agree that this is less than ideal bearing in mind that many people on turning 18 will be disregarded for the purposes of the discount due to being
I have not looked in detail at the other publications on the NFI section of the
Commission website but am happy to do this and check for inaccuracies if
necessary.
Correspondence received by the complaints unit at the Commission has raised a number of questions as to how entitlement to a council tax discount on the basis of being the only resident who does not fall to be disregarded for the purposes of the discount (which we shall call single person discount) works....
Section 10 sets out how the basic amount of council tax payable by a person
who is liable to pay council tax in respect of a chargeable dwelling is to be
calculated. Section 11(1) then states:-
“(1) The amount of council tax payable in respect of any chargeable dwelling
and any day shall be subject to a discount equal to the appropriate
percentage of that amount if on that day-
(a) there is only one resident of the dwelling and he does not fall to be
disregarded for the purposes of the discount; or
(b) there are two or more residents of the dwelling and each of them
except one falls to be disregarded for those purposes.”.
Regulation 14 provides that before making any calculation for the purposes of
Part V of the Regulations of the chargeable amount in respect of any dwelling
in its area, an authority shall take reasonable steps to ascertain whether that
amount is subject to a discount, and if so, the amount of that discount.
Regulation 15 provides that where having taken those reasonable steps ... an authority has reason to believe that the chargeable amount for the financial year concerned is subject to a discount of a particular amount, it shall assume, in making the calculation of the
chargeable amount, that the chargeable amount is subject to a discount of
that amount.
Regulation 16 goes on to provide that where a person-
(a) has been informed in accordance with any provision of demand notice
regulations [as to which see paragraph 12 below] of an assumption as
to discount made in his case; and
(b) at any time before the end of the financial year following the financial
year in respect of which the assumption is made has reason to believe
that the chargeable amount is not in fact subject to any discount, or is
subject to a discount of a smaller amount,
he shall, within the period of 21 days beginning on the day on which he first
has reason so to believe, notify the authority in writing of his belief.
A demand notice is a written notice that an authority must serve for each
financial year on every person liable to pay council tax under regulation 18, in
accordance with regulations 19-21.
Under regulation 20, the demand notice shall require the making of payments of the authority’s estimate of the chargeable amount made, as respects part or whole of the relevant year, on
various assumptions, including in regulation ... 20(3)(f) that
if, by virtue of regulation 15(2), the chargeable amount is assumed to be
subject to a discount on the day the notice is issued, that it will continue to be
subject to the same rate of discount as regards every day after the issue of
the notice.
XXXXX XXXXX identified paragraphs 42 and 47 of the NFI 2006/07 national
report under the section “Other data matching” as inaccurate. I have looked at
all of section 3 (paragraphs 42-51) and I agree that the content of paragraphs
42 and 47 could more accurately reflect the legislation.
...
23. Paragraph 47: Also within this exercise is a “Rising 18s” match which
identifies young people becoming an adult at 18 who live with a council tax
single person discount recipient. This age change could make many
recipients of the single person discount ineligible as they will not then be the
only adult living in the property ... [DN XXXXX XXXXX raised the point that no mention was made of disregards here and I agree that this is less than ideal bearing in mind that many people on turning 18 will be disregarded for the purposes of the discount due to being
students].
I have not looked in detail at the other publications on the NFI section of the
Commission website but am happy to do this and check for inaccuracies if
necessary.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
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