Soldato
I live alone and I claim a single person discount. Late last year I got a letter from the council saying they reguarly reviewed the cases of people claiming discounts on the council tax and their data company (Experian) had supplied them with possible evidence that suggested I was falsely claiming the discount. This was rubbish and so I contacted the council to ask them for the evidence as it was blatantly incorrect. I thought perhaps the Experian systems had found something from a previous occupant and not matched the time stamps properly. The council took ages to reply and eventually suggested I contact Experian.I wonder how many councils across the UK would be added to this thread, were they a company!
Experian kept asking me for either "eight-digit reference number or your twelve-digit customer number". A bit difficult when I haven't applied to Experian for anything and Experian have done some (faulty) data matching on me. Experian even had the cheek to say, "Due to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), any details relating to the data we returned could only be provided directly to Local Governments and public sector partners, and I am unable to provide you with any information relating to any another individuals.". So Experian screwed up matching some data, apparently because they "had identified 2 individuals are your address." but refused to give me an indication as to what this data was so I could correct it. Both the council and Experian took weeks between emails to reply to me and just sent me generic twaddle. I kept going because being accused of financial fraud isn't something I particularly want on my CV!
I think the council decided in the end to drop the claim about 2 people living with me, which would have made my SPD claim invalid, because of how persistent I was in finding out what data they and Experian held on me; they realised they'd got it wrong but rather than admit it and apologise they just dropped it. I still don't know what data Experian matched but it was wrong and the council were absolutely pathetic in helping me sort it out. Had the council sent me a letter asking me to confirm I was still happy to claim the SPD and that making a false claim could be fraudulent I'd have happily signed the form. But because Experian "matched some data", got it completely wrong, the council sent me a letter effectively accusing me of committing fraud I spent weeks waiting for information on this so I could correct the record. Absolute shower and my mood got worse every time the council or Experian sent me a generic reply.