Computer error hits Hull council tax payers

A technical problem with Hull City Council's computer systems has resulted in almost 10,000 people being wrongly charged for their council tax payments.

The error, which occurred on Wednesday, meant that payments were taken twice from approximately 9,500 accounts before the council shut down the systems to correct the fault.

"Hull City Council apologises to all those who have been affected by a computer fault identified on 9 January," said an official statement by the council.

"This resulted in electronic payments of council bills being duplicated and taken a second time from some customers' accounts."

The council stressed that anyone affected by the computer fault will receive full reimbursement of the overpayments.

"The council has already identified all these repayments and will be sending instructions to the banks this evening to reimburse the money," the statement added.

"In any cases where people have accrued bank charges, these will also be fully reimbursed."

Hull City Council has set up cash reimbursement facilities at its treasury and housing offices to assist anyone with immediate cash-flow problems.