WEALDEN District Council has released the findings of an investigation report by its internal auditors into what went wrong after thousands of council tax payments were taken early over Christmas.
The council says it has ‘implemented recommendations made by the report of new measures that will ensure this can never happen again’.
Direct debits for Council Tax and Business Rates were taken from bank accounts on 27 December 2024, rather than on 2 January 2025. The council apologised for this mistake and notified all banks on 24 December, when it first became aware of the issue and it was unable to prevent the direct debits from being taken.
The internal auditor’s investigation report concludes that the error occurred due to ‘human error’, and that new controls were needed to prevent the error or reverse it in time. This includes having two people involved in the process of scheduling direct debit payments, a practice which had stopped for unknown reasons.
The investigation report – to be discussed at the council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Monday 13 January – is the first in a series of reports requested by the Wealden District Council Cabinet to understand what went wrong, and what can be done to improve things in the future. The Cabinet has also requested an independent review into the communication of this error to residents, councillors, and others.
Councillor Rachel Millward, Alliance for Wealden (Green Party) and lead councillor for Community, Culture and Communications and leader of the council said: “I want to repeat my apology for the stress and inconvenience this error may have caused to residents over the Christmas period. We are just so sorry this happened, and we are today implementing the necessary changes to ensure this never happens again.
If you find you have received any additional charges, WDC is advising residents to email: localtax@wealden.gov.uk with the subject ‘DD Error’ and it will prioritise your case.”
Anyone who was affected by the issue and has not yet been contacted can email localtax@wealden.gov.uk or call 01323 443 385.
