{"id":4777,"date":"2015-07-13T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4777"},"modified":"2015-07-13T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T14:58:11","slug":"the-shambles-that-wrecks-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4777","title":{"rendered":"The shambles that wrecks lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">More than 30 Unite Community activists and local residents protested outside an ex Unite shop steward\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house today (Monday July 13) to stop bailiff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evicting him and his severely disabled daughter.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Paul Rooney gave up work as a social work manager to look after his 14-year-old daughter Roisin, who has a brain tumour and a chromosome disorder and as a result, physical and learning disabilities.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Paul owns his house but Liberata, which runs the council tax collection service on behalf of Bromley Council, claim that he allegedly owes over \u00c2\u01412,000 in council tax.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Unite said that Liberata made mistakes in processing Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s application for council tax benefit, which resulted in the council tax not being paid on time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBromley Council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s notoriously bad outsourced council tax collection service has repeatedly messed up the processing of Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s council tax, and now his home is threatened with repossession today,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Pilgrim Tucker, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s London Community coordinator. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is alleged that Liberata has also tacked on \u00c2\u014149,000 in solicitors fees to what Paul is meant to owe. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a horrific case that is inhumane and proves that the outsourcing of council services to the private sector is a shambles and they should be brought back in house immediately,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Pilgrim.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Bromley Council is reducing the number of council employees from 4,000 to just 300 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite having \u00c2\u0141130m in reserves. Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s council members recently staged a fourth strike over the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plans.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis appalling instance just reinforces the case that Unite has repeatedly made that privatising council services has been a horrendous mistake,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Onay Kasab, Unite regional official who represents members at the council.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Paul and his daughter are now waiting to see if their eviction will be temporarily halted by a judge at Croydon crown court either later on today (Monday July 13) or tomorrow morning.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 30 Unite Community activists and local residents protested outside an ex Unite shop steward\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house today (Monday July 13) to stop bailiff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evicting him and his severely disabled daughter. \u00c2\u00a0 Paul Rooney gave up work as a social work manager to look after his 14-year-old daughter Roisin, who has a brain tumour and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[131,232],"wps_subtitle":"Outsourcing council services can really hurt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4778,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions\/4778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}