Once you had agreed for companies to freeze payments you should have then cancelled the direct debits for those payments, it is the safest way to avoid them coming out by mistake.
I would go to the back and request the money back for the companies who agreed to freeze the payments. I recently had E-On take ~ £700 out of my bank account because they miscalculated the final bill, I phoned up the bank to request a charge back and I had the money back in my account within minutes. They still have not sent a revised final bill.
As for your current situation it might be worth going to the local council to see if they have any sort of emergency/budgeting loans that can be made available to you until the tax has been paid off or you have been to court to settle a more affordable payment plan. I am surprised to learn the HMRC can garnish your JSA without a garnishee order though or is it an attachment of earnings?
Keep a note of all the fees that you are charged due to this situation and when you have settled everything take HMRC to the small claims court to get those charges back (speak to a lawyer first though). As a layman I would expect you have a somewhat strong case as you were willing to pay HMRC an affordable amount until the total tax owed was paid back but they refused this offer and instead took all your money leading to a situation where you accrued additional charges that could have been avoided if they had chosen a less heavy handed tactic of recovery.
I would go to the back and request the money back for the companies who agreed to freeze the payments. I recently had E-On take ~ £700 out of my bank account because they miscalculated the final bill, I phoned up the bank to request a charge back and I had the money back in my account within minutes. They still have not sent a revised final bill.
As for your current situation it might be worth going to the local council to see if they have any sort of emergency/budgeting loans that can be made available to you until the tax has been paid off or you have been to court to settle a more affordable payment plan. I am surprised to learn the HMRC can garnish your JSA without a garnishee order though or is it an attachment of earnings?
Keep a note of all the fees that you are charged due to this situation and when you have settled everything take HMRC to the small claims court to get those charges back (speak to a lawyer first though). As a layman I would expect you have a somewhat strong case as you were willing to pay HMRC an affordable amount until the total tax owed was paid back but they refused this offer and instead took all your money leading to a situation where you accrued additional charges that could have been avoided if they had chosen a less heavy handed tactic of recovery.
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