Here's a £500 bill because your wife's left you, council tells grieving widower

A WIDOWER was handed a £500 bill by a Yorkshire council after his wife died, and told by an official it had been levied because she had left him.
Derek and Jean Landon. Picture: Ross Parry AgencyDerek and Jean Landon. Picture: Ross Parry Agency
Derek and Jean Landon. Picture: Ross Parry Agency

Derek Landon, 76, received six different council tax bills after his wife Jean, 78, passed away in July.

When he called his local benefits office, a council worker told him they had been sent because his wife had walked out on him.

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The telephonist went on to say that the council’s record system also showed he had moved out of his council flat for a short period and he would need to sign a new tenancy agreement.

Mr Landon said: “I got these benefit notifications saying I owed them £500 for housing benefit from July 22 to the beginning of September.

“I rang up the council to ask for an explanation and this council worker said she’d bring up my file on the computer. She said, ‘It says here your wife has moved or she has left you’.

“She then said that I had moved out but moved back in a few weeks later so they would have to change my tenancy, which wasn’t true.

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“It wasn’t very good at all. She never said sorry at all when I told her Jean had died.”

Mr Landon accused Huddersfield-based Kirklees Council of incompetence.

He added: “The upsetting part was not getting all these bills for different amounts or being charged the extra £500, but the insinuation that my wife had left me.”

Mr Landon said after he registered his wife’s death on July 20 he had taken advantage of a scheme to notify government organisations.

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The council’s housing department, which runs the sheltered accommodation block in which he has lived for eight years, was then correctly notified of the death.

But an error in the system at the benefits office meant that it was not properly recorded.

Mr Landon, a father of two and grandfather of three, said his wife had died following a two-year battle with liver cancer.

He said: “I looked after Jean for two years because she was very poorly at the end. She knew what was happening and coped with it well but because of her illness we did get extra benefits.

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“It was a very stressful time and I was a full-time carer for the last two years of her life. Family birthdays just came and went and passed me by and my head was all over the place during that time.”

Mr Landon said the council had now agreed to rectify its mistakes but had told him he may see an increase in his rent because he would need to sign a single tenancy agreement.

Kirklees Council apologised for what it said was “a mistake in our system”.

A spokesman said: “Mr Landon should not have received an overpayment letter from us and we have contacted him to apologise. At the time of Mr Landon’s initial phone call, our staff member explained what had caused the issue, provided reassurance that Mr Landon did not owe the money requested and said the situation had now been resolved.”