Merry Christmas from our Council!!!

[ik9000]

How's this for a Merry Christmas from our council - we got this through the door...



Aw, that's nice we thought.


Then we turned it over.






And we're like, WTF???

I can only conclude that our Council have hired these chaps.... (0:00-0:17)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k3Ju-yzINI

[Agent]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25428796

Been in the news the last couple of days. Bit of a strange approach.

[ik9000]

oh it's the whole borough? We wondered if it was cos our block had a few alcoholics on it. Clearly not!

Why they're not limiting it to council tenants puzzles me though. I don't, and am not meant to, pay any rent to the council.

[Agent]

They're simply wishing you a happy Christmas then

[kalniel]

It's a free phone number - maybe sing a carol to them?

[ik9000]

It's a free phone number - maybe sing a carol to them?

"welcome to H&F council. To pay your rent press 1, to tell us that you're not paying your rent press 2, for enquiries on help paying your rent press 3, to discuss an eviction notice press 4, if you are a contractor undertaking an eviction press 5, and if none of the above apply please press 0 whereupon we will transfer you through 3 further automated menus before disconnecting you. If you would like to talk to someone, good luck, and if you want to sing us a Christmas Carol, we feel that "away in a manger, no crib for a bed" would best fit your inevitably dire housing circumstance. Nyeeehhhh."

[wasabi]

I've worked in social housing. The state of contact databases is sometimes not the best. Probably someone at your address at some point has made contact with their housing department.

[peterb]

Well, leaving aside the fact that the contact database may be out of date, the softly softly approach is quite good IMHO. As landlords, they have to collect the rent - Christmas can be an expensive time when those on low budgets may overlook the fact that housing is an important debt, and the Council are

a. gently reminding them that the rent still has to be paid

b. Gently reminding them that if the household budget has gone a little of target, they have some leeway to help the tenant manage, provided they seek help early enough.

Like many public bodies, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place - intervene early and they get criticised for looking for problems - intervene late and they get criticised for not acting soon enough.

So think of it as a nice gesture that was accidentally mis-targeted!