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Lesley and Keith Hampton
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Council’s u-turn over tax bill for cancer sufferer
Karen Britton19/ 3/2008
A CASH-strapped couple have won their battle to get a council tax payment extension to help with cancer treatment.
Part-time van driver Keith Hampton, 62, and sick wife Lesley, 50 – who has had to give up work for daily radiotherapy at Christie Hospital – were originally denied one-month’s leeway on their bill.
The town hall’s hard stance meant the Poynton couple had to dip into funds put aside to help with treatment and they were struggling to make ends meet...until the Express stepped in and the council made a u-turn.
Now the taxman says they can have an extra month to coincide with Keith’s pension – as a one-off gesture.
Lesley said: "We are delighted they have changed their minds – that extra month really will make a difference – but at first they just didn’t seem to care.
"It came about because we changed our payment date when I had to give up work. It was really a matter of just eight days from our original due date."
The couple, of Mallard Crescent, Poynton, originally queried the bill, which requested the next payment sooner than they had expected.
Because council tax is paid in ten-monthly payments, they had anticipated a two-month payment holiday.
Keith said: "Lesley has cancer of the tongue and is having treatment at Christie Hospital everyday and all the travelling is very tiring. We just needed a little bit of help. We said that we would pay all our council tax but were expecting the extra month to start paying – the bill asked for payment on April 5 but we were expecting to pay on May 5."
Keith explained their story to a council representative, but was told that there was no chance of changing the payment date.
Lesley added: "The council said their financial year starts in April and that there was no way we could start payment in May. We were just asking to pay from this May until February 2009, instead of from April to January 2009.
"The council said they were trying to look out for us, but they didn’t seem to care."
A council spokesman said: "We did receive a call from Mr Hampton. The nature of his complaint appears to be that he was advised the next instalment to be paid after February would be on May 5 and has budgeted his finances accordingly. That is incorrect as all council tax payers commence the new financial year with an April instalment, irrespective of when the previous payment was made.
"As a concession, and purely as a one-off gesture, I am prepared to amend the current year’s instalments to run from May 2008 to February 2009.
"It must be clearly understood, however, that in April 2009, no such concession will be given."
Most recent 2 of 3 user comments
To the Councils credit they did have a change of heart, but then the article did say that the couple "have won their battle". There should have been no battle, just early copassion would have sufficed.
26/03/2008 at 11:11
Got an opinion you want to share?Should less emphasis be placed on the results of tests and more emphasis on general education for children?
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