A retired police officer from Northwich has accused the council of inaccurately claiming to have the personal information of thousands of residents in order to cut the number of people wrongly claiming council tax benefits.

Andrew Green, of Barnton, lives alone and receives the single person discount – which reduces a council tax bill by 25 per cent for a sole occupier.

He was recently sent what he called an 'offensive letter' from Cheshire West and Chester which claimed a 'credit and data matching exercise' had indicated his circumstances 'may have changed', and that he may no longer be the only adult at his address.

When he asked where the council had sourced its information he said no such data was held. After making a complaint, he said he was subsequently told the letters were sent to more than 40,000 people.

He said: "They produced all the data that they held on me, none of which was part of the 'data matching exercise' or could possibly suggest that I was not a sole occupier.

"They then tried to pass the buck to the Cabinet Office by stating that the data matching exercise they refer to in the letter was in fact data supplied to them by the Cabinet Office and which they could or would not supply to me.

"I then made a Data Protection Act request to the Cabinet Office and they provided me with the information they hold on me which amounted to very little and nothing which could lead to the slightest suggestion that I was not a sole occupier."

He added: "I suspect that the same small amount of personal data held on me by the Cabinet Office was more or less equal to that held on the 40,000 occupants who received the offensive letter, in other words – nothing."

The 67-year-old said he receives similar letters annually but that this was the first time claims of a 'data matching exercise' had been included. He said he was told the letters had gone to more than 40,000 residents including elderly acquaintances, who he said had suffered distress as a result.

He said: "I initially thought that this letter had been sent to specific council taxpayers selected from data checks.

"However, I then found out that my friend's 81-year-old mother, who has been a widow and sole occupant of her property for more than 20 years, had received an identical letter. The wording of the letter has distressed her and, in a panic, she has called her son for help."

A council spokeswoman admitted the review letters are not personalised due to the 'large number of accounts' and it was 'therefore important' for the recipients to respond accurately to ensure they are paying the correct amounts of council tax and are also receiving the appropriate discounts.

Cllr Carol Gahan, Cheshire West and Chester Council's cabinet member for finance and legal, said: "From time-to-time charge payers are asked to confirm their entitlement.

"All accounts in receipt of single person discount (SPD) – approximately 44,000 – were uploaded to National Fraud Initiative (NFI). NFI completed a data and credit matching exercise and returned the accounts where another named individual is linked to the property.

"Approximately 25,000 accounts were returned with this data match and the council is now in the process of contacting these residents to clarify if SPD should still be in place.

"As part of the review process, the council has written to 16,000 residents who currently receive a SPD to ask for them to confirm their eligibility."