I Refer to Your Letter Regarding the Issue of the Single Person Discount Review Form

Ref:SAMPLE

5th September 2006

Dear

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - SINGLE PERSON DISCOUNT REVIEW

I refer to your letter regarding the issue of the Single Person Discount Review Form.

It is the Council’s statutory duty to review all discounts annually,to ensure that only genuine claimants continue to receive the 25% discount to which they are entitled. I feel sure that you would support the Council in achieving this objective.

In previous years we have sent review letters to all qualifying households receiving a discount (approx. 20,000), providing an opportunity for any changes affecting the award of discount to be reported.

Regrettably, the number of fraudulent claims for this type of discount is on the increase in Preston, impacting upon everyone through higher Council Tax charges. The City Council has a responsibility to ensure that all Council Tax due is collected and takes this responsibility very seriously. As a result, this year for the first time, the Council has been working in partnership with three other local authorities to reduce the number of households we need to write to, making savings in both officer time and postage costs.

By matching financial and electoral information electronically to identify households that could potentially have more than one person linked to a particular address, we have been able to reduce the number of letters issued to less than 5,000. We have been assisted by an External Agency “Experian” in this data matching exercise.

Letters have been issued where the data matching exercise highlighted that there could be one or more other adults using the address as their residential address. This is a pilot scheme, lessons from which form the basis of any future exercise. In many cases,we find that there is a reasonable explanation for this mismatch in the occupancy count, which doesn’t affect the occupier’s right to claim discount.

The City Council only holds an occupier count in relation to your household and does not have details of recorded occupiers. However, in response to your request for details of the information held by the external agency, I have contacted the company, who will reply direct to you within the next few days with the data they hold. You will be able to check this information and contact the company direct to request that it is changed,should you feel it is incorrect. For information purposes the company address and contact telephone number is detailed below:

Experian Ltd.

Consumer Help service

PO Box 8000

Nottingham

NG80 7WF

Tel. 0870 241 6212

I would like to thank you for your co-operation in responding to the review form. With hindsight, I accept that the wording of the letter could have been phrased differently and the text will be reviewed in respect of any future exercises.

To date I can report that a significant percentage of occupiers in the area have now stated that they are no longer entitled to a 25% reduction. Where claims are found to be invalid,discount will be cancelled and a new bill issued. This will help to limit future council Tax increases.

If you have any queries regarding the review and specific information within this letter, please contact me in the first instance for assistance. If you are then still not happy with the information provided, please write to the address below setting out your reasons within 21 days of receipt of this letter.

Mrs Lorraine Norris

Monitoring Officer

Preston City Council

Town Hall

Lancaster Road

Preston

Lancashire PR1 2RL

A copy of the Council’s Complaint Procedure can be provided on request.

If you are still dissatisfied with the Council’s decision after review, you may complain to:-

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe house

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Adrian Robinson

Assistant Director (Revenues)