A single mum claims she was barred from joining the waiting list for a council house until she cleared a £1.40 debt.

Katie O’Hea, 35, says she didn’t even accrue the paltry sum as all her payments to Douglas City Council were made by direct debit.

Miss O’Hea has since paid the remaining £1.40 to the council and has been reinstated on the housing list. She is disabled and has lived in the island her whole life.

The mother of two also lodged a complaint with the council over the way her case has been handled.

She left council housing in 2019 because of a career progression.

Miss O’Hea received a letter from the housing department demanding a sum of £1.83 in 2021, years after her previous tenancy in council housing had finished.

‘If I owe £1.83 they could have called that amount at any time, and they never did, we're talking two, three years down the line, by the time I've moved out of the house,’ she said.

Eventually, Miss O’Hea agreed to settle the debt, but would only pay the amount off in weekly 5p increments.

Once lockdown hit the weekly payments were done over the phone, until Katie was alerted in 2021 that the debt had been cleared by the council.

Last year she attempted to secure a council property for her and her two disabled children after her work circumstances changed and she attempted to join the waiting list.

‘I received a letter stating I would be accepted but needed to clear the £132.11 arrears on my account. I called the housing to question this.’

Unable to afford this and struggling to understand where the amount had came from, she was left feeling more let down and frustrated by the Council’s response.

Eventually Miss O’Hea was alerted that the £132.11 was an admin error and had been cleared, but to re-join the housing list she would have to pay off the remaining debt of £1.40.

This stemmed from the initial £1.83 debt she originally owed.

Miss O’Hea said: ‘How much are they spending in ratepayers’ money to pursue pathetic amounts?

‘I'd love to know how many more people have been in this situation.’

She said that the £1.40 debt would have been cleared years ago, allowing her to re-join the council list promptly, had she not been advised that it had been cleared.

A council spokesperson said: ‘There are a number of reasons why small balances can appear on an account, even where payments are made by direct debit.

‘This can occur when payment arrangements end and accounts are reconciled e.g due to timing differences, part-period charges or rounding adjustments. In most cases, these minor variances naturally correct over time.

‘Where a tenancy ends and a balance remains, this is normally settled at that point. Such balances can be either a surplus or a deficit, council would always repay any surplus immediately and it is expected any deficit is paid by the tenant promptly.’