Council budget help tells residents to account for court fees

Budgeting is something that millions of people across the UK struggle to do properly, so to have the local authority offer a helping hand in this regard is probably a welcome message for many – until they are insulted by it. This is just what happened recently to residents in Crawley, when the local council produced a budgeting suggesting that did not go down well. 

We've all seen Shameless and Benefits Street on the TV, but while these shows go out of their way to promote council housing tenants in a certain negative light, no one would expect council officials to have the same viewpoint of the people they are supposed to be helping. 

The local authority in Crawley shocked tenants when it sent them a form to fill out for help with their budgeting which suggested they set aside some of their income each month for Magistrates' court fees. While food, rent, clothes and other essentials might have been expected, most people probably did not expect to be told to keep some cash aside for when they have a run in with the law. Perhaps understandably, residents were quite miffed by the council's suggestion. 

Father-of-two Will Davies said: "Not everyone sits about watching Sky TV with a fag and a can of booze just waiting around until they have to go to court. 

"The simple fact that the council included these items just goes to show what they think of their tenants – they think they’re just chavs."

And it wasn't just residents that found the leaflet to be somewhat negative when it comes to helping people who may perhaps not be as well off. Local councillor Duncan Crow said he found the suggestion to be very insulting. 

"It just struck me as being somewhat odd and, to be frank, rather insulting to suggest that falling foul of the law is a part of everyday life for our council tenants," he told Crawley News. 

A spokesman from the council told the news source: "This is standard debt and budgeting advice from the Money Advice Trust. There are lots of things in the list that will not apply to many council tenants but the list helps them to prioritise the most important payments."