Action taken to address Council Tax payment issue

26 April 2024

West Northamptonshire Council has taken urgent action to address an issue with Council Tax payments affecting a number of residents in the Northampton area.

The Council has been alerted to an automated error in the system hosted by its BACS supplier, meaning that monthly Council Tax payments are due to be taken twice from 15,558 bank accounts on Monday (29 April).

Immediate steps were taken today to refund all those affected, who will receive a credit into their accounts on Monday, the same day as the duplicated payment is due to be taken.

“We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience and distress this error may have caused residents.

“Whilst our supplier’s software system automatically duplicated payment files which was beyond our control, we’ve acted quickly to arrange for refunds to be made into those affected bank accounts.

Residents affected by this error should see three entries going through their account. Two entries taking the Council Tax payment and one entry providing a refund. The net of these three transactions means the correct payment will have been made to the Council.

“We would ask those residents to bear with us whilst we resolve this issue and thank them for their patience and understanding.”Martin Henry, Executive Director for Finance

The error has affected 15,558 accounts, equating to around 8% of the 184,683 total number of Council Tax accounts across West Northamptonshire.