Council Tax refunds issued after systems error
Around 15,000 residents in Northampton have been affected
Refunds have been issued to around 15,000 residents in the Northampton area today (Monday, 29th April) whose monthly Council Tax payment was taken out twice due to an automatic systems error.
West Northamptonshire Council is urging those affected to check they have received the refund which will be in their bank account by the end of today.
They say that on Friday they were made aware of and took immediate action to address an automation error, meaning that monthly Council Tax payments would be taken twice from 15,558 bank accounts.
A refund has been issued by the Council to all affected bank accounts, so residents whose payments were taken twice do not need to do anything except await the credit.
Martin Henry, Executive Director for Finance says:
"We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience and distress this error may have caused residents affected.
"Residents affected by this error should see three entries going through their account today (Monday 29th April) – this is two entries taking the Council Tax payment and one entry providing a refund. The result of these three transactions means the correct payment will have been made to the Council.
"We would ask anyone who has been affected by this issue to check their account and wait for the refund to be paid, which will have happened by the end of the day.
"We can confirm there is no action residents need to take nor do they need to contact us but we thank them for bearing with us and for their patience and understanding whilst we resolve this issue."
The local authority go on to say that people affected shouldn't try to cancel their direct debit instruction or claim the sum back via their banks, as doing so could result in them having to repay the refund back to the Council.