Bromley man faces £700 fine for accidentally underpaying council tax by £2

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

A man has been taken to court after accidentally underpaying his council tax by £2.

John Pritchard and his partner, who live in Orpington, Bromley, received a court summons letter on September 13. The letter included a hearing date and a bill for £618, as well as costs of £101.50.

To investigate where the underpayment came from, Mr Pritchard checked his old council tax payments.

He said: “I paid the last amount in advance on the August 18. That was September’s payment, but I made a mistake because I looked at an old council bill, so the amount was different.”

Mr Pritchard has since tried to pay the £2 fee to resolve the issue, but said his payment plan had been cancelled by the council.

He added: “They stopped my ability to pay in instalments. I would be willing to pay it if they allowed me to. But in the summons, it says that only paying the full amount will stop the action.”

After attempts to pay the money owed “were blocked”, Mr Pritchard contacted the council directly.

He said: “I’ve tried phoning the council, but every time you phone, you wait and then get cut off because nobody is there to answer the call. I’ve sent an email, but I just got an automatic reply saying it will be 10 days until they look at it.”

Mr Pritchard is currently only working eight hours a week while he cares for his partner, and also receives income from a carer’s allowance.

To add to his financial worries, he said a payment error is docking his weekly payment by £20 a week.

“When I started my job, they got my bank details wrong. My first week of pay was rejected by the bank because they had the wrong details. So the second week, they had to pay me twice, which meant I went over the carers allowance limit.”

Despite trying to solve the issue with the carer’s allowance unit, to date, Mr Pritchard said he has been docked around £250.

He added: “When I phoned up, they gave me an email address to send the query to. But now, about a year later, they have told me that they are taking payments out of my account and they don’t look at that email address. It’s a total mess.”

Currently living on his overdraft to make ends meet, Mr Pritchard says he does not have the money to pay the council his court fees.

He said: “With the financial situation, it’s disgusting for the council to put people through this when they can see it’s an oversight of two pounds.”

The hearing for Mr Pritchard and his partner will take place virtually from Bromley Magistrates Court on October 4.

Bromley council and the Department for Work and Pensions, who are responsible for Mr Pritchard’s carer’s allowance, have been approached for comment.

Pictured top: John Pritchard, who was summon to court by Bromley council for underpaying his council tax by £2, shown with his court summons and council tax statement (Picture: Joe Coughlan)