UPDATE: |Couple left terrified after DWP tried to take them to court over £8,000 benefits bill News

“I was scared to take my babies out of the house because I was worried the bailiffs were going to come to the door”

A mum was left in fear of bailiffs knocking at her door after the government threatened, unsuccessfully, to take her and her partner to court for thousands of pounds.

Phillip Richards and Lisa Ives were in a row with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) concerning housing benefit, a dispute over an £8,000 sum which the couple claim they won.

But they are now embroiled in another dispute over council tax they have been told they owe.

In February 2025, they were notified that they owed £3,143.80 for council tax bills spanning from April 2020 to October 2023, with an expectation to repay this amount over five years.

This situation is linked to the previous disagreement with the DWP, where Lisa’s council tax was previously covered as part of a reduction scheme for those with the lowest incomes. When Phillip and Lisa started cohabiting in 2020, they reported this change to the DWP.

However, it is understood that the DWP failed to process their claim correctly and continued to erroneously issue benefits without informing either Wirral Council or the couple. The pair said that they had sent hundreds of emails attempting to rectify the issue, but to no avail, reports the Liverpool Echo.

The couple provided the ECHO with letters indicating that they owed no council tax between April 2021 and March 2023, as well as a letter confirming both council tax support and housing benefit from March 9, 2022. They only received a letter confirming changes to their benefits in July 2022.

Despite a mistake regarding their benefits, the couple, from Birkenhead, Wirral, claimed that the DWP attempted to take them to court, in an effort, they said, was unsuccessful. The pair were later informed via an email dated June 17, 2024, viewed by the ECHO, that a housing benefit debt of £8,210.98 had been written off.

Phillip Richards, who is employed full-time, said he and his partner made repeated attempts to rectify both issues but found it challenging to receive any response despite sending numerous emails and making multiple phone calls.

He said: “If we were wrong, we would pay it. If we were wrong, we would have now probably paid any bills but when you know you are in the right, it’s frustrating.”

Lisa Ives added: “Replies seem to be copy and pasted. It took months for them to notice what was going on. We wanted it resolved years ago when we first started ringing when we heard about the housing overpayments. They didn’t even make us aware of it.”

She added: “I was scared to take my babies out of the house because I was worried the bailiffs were going to come to the door.

“Sometimes I just wanted to curl up in bed and hide from the world.

“It was terrifying. Even talking about it now brings back all kinds of anxiety. I just shake. My nerves got that bad. It feels like PTSD because it happened every single time.”

A Wirral Council spokesperson said: “The council has a duty to address outstanding debt according to its records. The appeal hearing relevant to this case ruled that the original overpayment of housing benefit was the result of an error unrelated to the council, which meant income-related Employment and Support Allowance continued to be paid and the council did not receive notification of the change in circumstances at the time.

“The effect of the judgement on the rate of council tax that should have applied during that time is being investigated and we hope to be able to inform the resident directly of the outcome of that process very shortly.”

After the ECHO approached the council, the couple were told by the local authority it had made an error and would be reversing most of the charges as well as liability order costs. The council said the couple now owed £970.49 and apologised for the delay in updating the couple’s council tax account.

The charge is due to Lisa having received a single occupancy council tax discount and the council says it was not told about Phillip living with Lisa. This is despite the tribunal decision finding the DWP failed to adjust the couple’s income.

To pay back the £970.49 the couple will have to pay £135.78 for April 2025 followed by 11 monthly payments of £132.00.

The couple still plan to contest the amount of money they’ve been told they still owe to the local authority. They said this is because they were not aware of any council tax debts until February this year as the debt had been racked up during a period they were told they didn’t need to pay council tax.

Phillip said: “I am wasting a lot of my own time,” adding: “Unless we have got thousands of pounds, we can’t really do anything about it. That is the big issue. If we had the money we wouldn’t be in this position in the first place. I am not the council, I haven’t got solicitors working for me to fight this in court.”

The DWP did not respond to a request for comment.

Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE