Am i Going to Prison For this?

[Rexathon]

About a year ago My tv licence ran out and i forgot to renew it, about a month later i had one of those enforcement people at my door and to cut a long story short it got sent to court with my been ordered to pay back almost £900.
I rang to explain that i was on income support etc and could i pay in installments which they agree'd to and said they would apply to have it taken directly out of my benifit.
I thought no more of this and heard nothing back and i just assumed that it was been paid and everything was fine.

Untill i had a letter this morning informing me that it had not been paid i was in contemp for not following court orders and now there was a warrent out for my arrest with a court date in the near future.

Im so scared now that im going to go to prison for this, im on my own with 2 children and 35 weeks pregnant, my eldest son has disabilities theres no one who could take on my kids so what would happen to them.

This is stressing me out beyond belief

[HappyMummyOfOne]

I cant see it being prison, you may end up with a criminal record though if there is a warrant on you.

Your defence of thinking it has been paid wont wash though unless you can prove your IS payment was reduced which it doesnt sound like it was.

Given you are pg, I presume you have a partner - can he not pay the fine in full for you?

[mumblechum1]

Surely you must have noticed that your benefits hadn't gone down?

They won't send you to prison if you
are pregnant, but if you have two children and another on the way, where are their dads?

[Rexathon]

My ex partner to my two eldest children has no contact with us due to DV..my current partner left me when i found out i was pregnant after 3 years together so i am basically on my own. I can afford to pay this outright so im stuck. I have other bills taken out of my benifit such as water and i am paying back a social fund loan i had so it was reduced quite a lot anyway i just assumed this was been taken too.
But then assumption is the mother of all fuck up's it was my mistake for not checking

[SoupDragon]

I would imagine that this is a virtually automatic letter. Write/phone them explaining that it was agreed that they would take it out of your benefits and then take it from there. Mistakes do happen - hopefully this one can be rectified.

[MindtheGappp]

Put the Tv in the attic until you have a licence.

[Rexathon]

I Have a licence now

[VivaLeBeaver]

You're not going to go to prison. But you need to get some legal advice asap to sort this out. Please don't bury your head in the sand and hope they;ll forget, etc. You need to take steps to sort it

[LittlePushka]

Sounds wholly implausible to me.

Have you ever received any court summons? I mean official court papers with the name of the court on it and a case number? Does the letter state the court and the supposed hearing date? If not then no proceedings can have been issued.

I have been receiving the full range of increasingly threatening letters from TV licencing for seven years because the postcode they put on their letters is wrong.

[Riakin]

Hi,

Its quite unlikely you'll get sent to prison, but as per the law, you will be arrested if there is a warrant out for your arrest.

What is concerning me most is... if you have other bills deducted from IS, then you have clearly been charged by a provider before. Also were you working before you became pregnant? What jobs have you done... what plans have you got to get a job after your baby is born?