Council Debt Collectors Threaten 80 year old over £17.50 bill for "personal attack alarm"
Aberdeen City Council's latest recipient of the shock treatmentfor non-payment of their many and various bills.
by johnofgwent
Well, I confess I did wonder what Harriet Harman the denier of equal opportunity for all meant when she told Andrew Marr that just because the court of law can't do anything it doesn't mean the "courtof public opinion" won't in the matter of Sir Fred and his comfy retirement plan.
But as I started out on my customary perusal of the news websites to see just how deep the fools running this country have dug themselves into their little holes, I found an example of just how low politicians are happy to stoop in the current financial crisis of their own making
For I stumbed upon the case of Aberdeen City Council and their rather interesting way of dealing with people who dispute bills they get from the council.
Now before I go any further you might like to pop over to this link where you will see the motley bunch that "govern" this place are made up of a right "rainbow alliance" constructed from one 'independent', fifteen 'liberal democrats', four 'scottish tories', ten 'scottish labour ' and thirteen 'scottish nationalists'. So I'm buggered if I can work out who is in charge, and maybe that's the key to their little problem.
Because they seem to be rather quick off the mark at sending in the men with baseball bats to sort out recalcitrant debtors. As an 80 year old, partially sighted pensioner found out to her cost.
Unhappy at the council's demand for £17.50 for provision of a "personal alarm" this vulnerable old lady sent the item back to the council and wrote two letters querying the cost. Presumably she, or one of her family, discovered the same item available for a fiver in the local B&Q or similar. I do not know. But what I do know is the council's response to this woman's actioni returning the device and disputing the bill was to get a firm of debt collectors to threaten her with legal action if she did not pay up.
And she is far from alone. Another recipient of the debt collector's bile was the mother of a young man currently being treated at The Royal Cornhill Hospital who the same council seem to think has no right to challenge their demand for £600 in connection with his treatment.
Just because Aberdeen City Council got their fingers burned when they stuffed over £120 million earmarked for the building of ten schools under one of those oh-so-dodgy "public-private-partnership" schemes into an Icelandic Bank to get more interest while they sat on their laurels and pontificated, doesn't mean you can go round taking out your anger on the old and the sick.
You would think most people standing for public office to serve the people would know that. But clearly not. So perhaps we would give more prominence to the roll of dishonour I highlighted earlier.
But as I started out on my customary perusal of the news websites to see just how deep the fools running this country have dug themselves into their little holes, I found an example of just how low politicians are happy to stoop in the current financial crisis of their own making
For I stumbed upon the case of Aberdeen City Council and their rather interesting way of dealing with people who dispute bills they get from the council.
Now before I go any further you might like to pop over to this link where you will see the motley bunch that "govern" this place are made up of a right "rainbow alliance" constructed from one 'independent', fifteen 'liberal democrats', four 'scottish tories', ten 'scottish labour ' and thirteen 'scottish nationalists'. So I'm buggered if I can work out who is in charge, and maybe that's the key to their little problem.
Because they seem to be rather quick off the mark at sending in the men with baseball bats to sort out recalcitrant debtors. As an 80 year old, partially sighted pensioner found out to her cost.
Unhappy at the council's demand for £17.50 for provision of a "personal alarm" this vulnerable old lady sent the item back to the council and wrote two letters querying the cost. Presumably she, or one of her family, discovered the same item available for a fiver in the local B&Q or similar. I do not know. But what I do know is the council's response to this woman's actioni returning the device and disputing the bill was to get a firm of debt collectors to threaten her with legal action if she did not pay up.
And she is far from alone. Another recipient of the debt collector's bile was the mother of a young man currently being treated at The Royal Cornhill Hospital who the same council seem to think has no right to challenge their demand for £600 in connection with his treatment.
Just because Aberdeen City Council got their fingers burned when they stuffed over £120 million earmarked for the building of ten schools under one of those oh-so-dodgy "public-private-partnership" schemes into an Icelandic Bank to get more interest while they sat on their laurels and pontificated, doesn't mean you can go round taking out your anger on the old and the sick.
You would think most people standing for public office to serve the people would know that. But clearly not. So perhaps we would give more prominence to the roll of dishonour I highlighted earlier.
1 comment:
How sick can you get ?? The thought of old age is now more than scarey! We need a new system and we need it now before we are doomed forever to a life of fear.
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