This flier lists councils who have used Northgate (and Experian) for council tax purposes.
It starts with somewhat ludicrous figures, apparently provided by the National Fraud Authority, who would not it appears be able to recognise Section 11 of the Local Government Finance Act if it were copied out and sent to them and which usually gets its figures from the National Fraud Initiative whose misuse of statistics is well established. But the purposes here is rhetorical, to get the reader worked up by suggesting that there is a really really big problem. This time the figure is 100 million a year, in terms of people who 'could be wrongly claiming the discount'. The National Fraud Authority does not know how the discount should be 'claimed' and frequently praises councils which do the whole thing quite wrongly. But that suits Northgate, who are making money out of councils which do the wrong thing.
We can list some of these councils, as Northgate kindly provides their names.
York, Gedling, Kirklees, Croyden, and South Holland and East Lindsay.
The links below are links to inaccurate information and guidance on the web sites of the councils in question.
Gedling
Has misinformation built into the demand notice itself, listing both single person and non existent 'disregard discounts' on it. Generally Gedling appears to be trying to maintain some sort of council tax register and it provides inaccurate and misleading advice about the sorts of thing one has to report to the council. This is consistent with the false accounts of 'single person discounts' provided by Northgate and Experian.
http://www.gedling.gov.uk/counciltaxbenefits/yourbillexplained/counciltax/
http://www.gedling.gov.uk/counciltaxbenefits/counciltax/discountsexemptions/singlepersondiscount/
http://www.gedling.gov.uk/media/documents/counciltaxbenefits/Single%20Occupier%20Discount%20Application.pdf (signed by named council individual)
http://www.gedling.gov.uk/media/documents/counciltaxbenefits/School%20Leaver%20Disregard%20Application.pdf
Council tax demand notices: example of web site: not carrying out law properly. Not notifying the assumptions, and apparently not making them either.
http://www.gedling.gov.uk/media/documents/counciltaxbenefits/Council%20Tax%20Explanatory%20Notes%20201213.pdf
THIS LATTER IS A LEGAL DOCUMENT WHICH FAILS TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS UNDER THE REGULATIONS.
Kirklees
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/you-kmc/payments/counciltax/councilTaxDiscounts.aspx#anchor2
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/you-kmc/payments/counciltax/pdf/counciltaxdiscounts.pdf
Has someone moved into this address, meaning that you no longer qualify for a single persons discount?
Confuses disregard categories with discounts. Enough said on this council. Plainly putting misinformation into the public domain.
Croydon
Unusual council this: it can tell the difference between a disregard category and a discount, but it does provide misleading information. When councils do this it should be noted that they always err on the side of telling you you must provide third party information to them when in law it is not that simple or when it is plain wrong.
Croydon was of course one of the councils involved in the NFI pilots, and so it has it would appear been indulging in maladministration and injustice for longer than almost any other council in the country (See NFI steering committee briefing note for 2007). In 2007 it subjected over 7 thousand dwellings to fraud investigations, and nobody appears to have any evidence about how many of these investigations were utterly abortive in the sense that they found no actual inconsistency and there was full entitlement all the time.
Do I have to tell someone if I am a 'disregarded' person or if someone living with me is 'disregarded' person?
You need to tell us about the 'disregarded' persons living with you if:
- you want to claim a discount
- You can only get this discount if you live alone
There is no excuse for putting this sort of nonsense on your web site.
South Holland and East Lindsay
http://www.e-lindsey.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F9263066-69C8-40CF-AB5B-A394A5317E1D/0/Eastlindseycounciltax1213.pdf
This notice does give a clear list of people who are not counted when seeing how many people live in your house.
But from the web site we find this nonsense, with a typical threat just to scare people into providing information they have no duty to provide.
Change in circumstances
You must tell us within 21 days if there is a change that might affect your Council Tax discount.
We can impose a £70 penalty on you if you do not tell us about a change.
South Holland
Blatant and dangerous nonsense on web site
If you are given a discount and your circumstances change, the law says you have to tell us within 21 days. If you
don’t, we can impose a financial penalty. Telling other parts of the Council (such as completing the electoral
registration form) is not enough unless you tell them the information is for council tax as well.
