Pensioner made to repay 1p (From The Northern Echo)

Chester-le-Street pensioner made to repay 1p

6:00am Monday 8th February 2010 in News By Mark Summers

A COUNCIL has apologised after demanding that a frail pensioner return a council tax benefit overpayment of 1p.

Mary Moffat, 85, was bewildered when she received the letter that Durham County Council sent to the care home in Chester-le-Street where she lives.

Mrs Moffat had recently moved from her home in the town.

A family member paid the bill by debit card and received a receipt from the council.

Her son, John, who lives in Stockport, said: “My sister took the council tax bill and read it. It was true that there was money outstanding, and yes, in the eyes of the law, it did need to be paid.

“But one wonders if this was really worthwhile, or could this be an indication of the lengths that Durham County Council will go to in order to extract every penny from the frail elderly under their jurisdiction?

“The money that this council tax bill was requesting was one penny.

“This bill, no doubt, had cost taxpayers’ money to send out, and considering that my sister had requested a written receipt, more money to send this receipt by return of post.

“No doubt that if questioned, they will state that this was due to a computer error and that they do not persecute the elderly for these trifling sums. Well they obviously do, especially when one considers that the envelope was handwritten; so someone must have seen this bill before it was sent.

“How many other people have received council tax bills for one to ten pence? I imagine the cost in collecting these funds far outweighs the value of the monies brought in.”

A spokesman for the county council said: “This letter clearly should not have been sent to Mrs Moffatt and we can only apologise to her and her family.

“When Mrs Moffat moved house, we had to recalculate her council tax benefits and due to figures being rounded up, it resulted in an overpayment of 1p being shown.

“Normally, our computer systems would pick up on this small amount and we would be able to write it off, but unfortunately this did not happen on this occasion.

“We have recognised the problem and have taken action to correct it.”