Council apologises after payments taken early

Residents unsure if their January payment is due are being told to call the council's tax team

An East Sussex council has apologised for the early collection of January council tax and business rates.

Wealden District Council (WDC) said that an automated scheduling error meant that direct debits for council tax and business rates were taken on 27 December rather than on 1 January 2025.

Leader of the council, councillor Rachel Millward, said: "It is deeply upsetting to know that this error will have caused stress and difficulty for some residents over the Christmas period."

The local authority said that anyone who did incorrectly have money taken from their account is eligible for a refund, although this could take up to 10 working days to process.

They added that if a direct debit payment was collected in error on 27 December and if anyone did not want to request a refund, then it meant their January council tax instalment had been paid.

Residents unsure if their January payment was due were told to call WDC's Council Tax team to check.

Ms Millward added: "On behalf of the council I offer my sincere apologies to anyone impacted. We will do all we can to rectify this situation."

Councillor Michael Lunn told BBC Radio Sussex that 17,594 households and 324 business rate customers were affected by the early payments being taken.

He said: "The most upset was caused as no council member knew about it.

"My phone went berserk after people saw the money being taken from their accounts."