30 October 2026
Croydon in crisis: A ‘collapsed’ payments system has seen the council stiff hundreds of casual workers – highly trained translators and interpreters – for tens of thousands of pounds. And Mayor Perry knew nothing about it.
Mayor Jason Perry’s omnishambles council could find itself dragged through the small claims court by dozens of angry service providers because a faulty payments system has failed to make payments to around 200 freelance translators and interpreters for three months.
The council’s total debts to the hard-working suppliers is estimated to be tens of thousands of pounds.
It has emerged that Croydon Council’s internal payment system collapsed overnight at the end of July. Three months on, the translators are still waiting for their money and “pulling our hair out over the lack of communication”.
CTIS – the Croydon Translation and Interpretation Service – has ground to a halt, with important meetings with often vulnerable clients having to be cancelled due to non-payment of fees. CTIS personnel have been left out of pocket for amounts from a few hundred to several thousand pounds.
Despite numerous complaints from the translators and various assurances from senior council managers, a payment deadline of this week has come and gone with no money paid by Croydon’s cash-strapped council.
The situation has also highlighted that the council has no system in place to make emergency payments to its casual workers when its computerised payments system breaks down. [...]
