Taxation have advised that some enquiries are going through to them without contact information for the customers provided.

As the team do not have access to Lagan they cannot acquire this information themselves, please remember to include a phone number for the related customer with all enquiries.

Following discussion with Taxation Manager (James Taylor) I have highlighted the large volumes of calls which Customer Services have continued to face as a result of the following areas:
• Customers unable to make payments to their Ctax Accounts using the online payments option from 01/04/2023 to 04/04/2023
• Council Tax Annual Billing
• NDR Annual Billing as a result of the changes to exemptions/reliefs and changes to the rateable values for business premises.

I have also highlighted to James that Customer Services have also seen a dramatic increase in the volumes of Emails received as a result of all of the above with Emails for Ctax/NDR/Revenues sitting at over 800 for these areas in particular.

As a result of my conversation with James the following has been identified which I would like to share with you:
• ICT and Taxation have identified a resolution to prevent a reoccurrence of this year’s issues which will be tested fully by ICT and Taxation in advance of Ctax Annual Billing.
• James is looking to delay NDR recovery for the time being.
• Ctax Emails should be the main priority for CS Advisors, as getting information moved to W2 will help to ensure accounts do not pass to recovery stages.
• James has asked me to thank CS Advisors for their efforts during this last few weeks as he appreciates that this has not been an easy time for Customer Services and is working hard to minimise the risk to us where absolutely possible.

Note
One thing to be aware of is that James’ team is short staffed also therefore although we can push as much as possible to W2 to prevent recovery they may not be able to act on this quickly so CS should try not to chase up any processing times if a customer is a repeat contacter. The main thing will be that if a form of information is pending on W2 it will get actioned as soon as practically possible.

Any issues, Email Senior Advisors (seniorcsa@moray.gov.uk) in the first instance.

Revenues have advised they have passed 5162 Council Tax 1st Reminders to CFH for dispatch today. They are all for non Direct Debit 2023/24 liabilities, where we haven’t received a payment for this financial year yet, i.e. their April instalment.

A fault has recently been identified in the Council Tax online payment system. This means some Council Tax payers are unable to pay online.

ICT are aware of this fault and are working to resolve it. We hope to have this done soon. We will confirm once fixed.

A social media post is being issued out for the public to make them aware.

Update 11:00 - It would appear that the issue is now resolved and accounts that could not be accessed yesterday are available on the payment system again. As the team can’t check every account, please pass any future reports of this issue (after the customer has tried again) via your Senior in the first instance.