Moray Council apologises for inconvenience caused by direct debit issue and provides update

MORAY Council has apologised for inconvenience caused by a technical issue while collecting direct debits.

The council let residents know about the issue – affecting tax instalment payments, FitLife? memberships, industrial lease payments and community care payments – last week.

Around 5000 council tax payers have been disrupted, with those affected to be written to this week with details on how the problem is impacting them.

The uncollected sum will be spread over the remaining instalment dates this financial year.

This will result in their instalments increasing so that council tax accounts will still be paid in full by March 21, 2024. A new council tax bill showing the amended instalments will also be issued to those affected.

If customers want to continue to pay the current amount of their instalment this can be arranged. Anyone wishing to discuss this further should phone 01343 563 456.

Moray Council’s Chief Financial Officer, Lorraine Paisey, said: “We apologise for the inconvenience this causes customers and our team is working closely with engineers to have the problem fixed as soon as possible.

"We expect that to be the end of the week but will update with any further information if that changes.

“In the meantime, staff are working hard to issue correspondence to those affected directly so they know as soon as possible what their new payment will be.

"I would encourage anyone concerned about this change to phone the Taxation Support Team on the numbers provided as soon as possible to discuss alternative options.”