Letter: Shocked at way our council tax problems have been handled

My husband and I are fully aware of the importance of council tax and that households are required by law to pay the required costs associated with our district.

However in times of hardship and when the majority of the country are under increased pressure to make their money go further I would have thought that a little more tolerance would have been levied against "struggling households".

My husband and I work full time and always have done, we have paid our contributions and worked hard to have an income without relying on an extra wage made up of benefits.

I am shocked and sickened therefore of how our non-payment of council tax has been dealt with by a company, which is contracted by Telford and Wrekin Council.

We received a letter last week stating that we owed a sum of money in form of council tax, which we know and that is not in dispute. However, what we are disputing is the way that it has been dealt with since receiving the letter. The letter stated that we must pay in full or to complete the income and expenditure form enclosed and make an offer of instalments straight away.

We received a further letter thanking us for our recent communication (no acknowledgement of £150 payment we had made) and the letter stated that they had instructed a first call bailiff to attend our property with a view of levying distress and that once the bailiff had attended the property we would have to return completed details regarding our income back to them as a matter of urgency.

As you can imagine I was very upset and distressed by this.

We have not deliberately ignored our council tax but we as a couple with no benefits or housing allowance to help us, we merely just struggle to pay our second biggest bill we have a month. We have tried to be as realistic in terms of our affordability now to repay this. I am unsure how you are able to demand full payment now when the period of the council tax is up to 2014 ?

Louise Parkes

Telford