6 days Ago By Adam-t-forrest
Local authorities have been urged to stop turning to “shocking” debt recovery methods ahead of next month’s council tax hikes.Widespread use of court action and bailiffs to collect council tax debt is causing fear and misery among families in hardship, say charity leaders.Michael, from North East Lincolnshire, said his own “scary” dealings with bailiffs began only a few months after he ran into trouble with a council tax payment.
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addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }The 25-year-old’s nightmare initially started with a motorcycle accident in April 2021. After undergoing multiple surgeries, Michael was left with limited use of his left arm, severe pains in his right leg, and PTSD.#color-context-related-article-3542382 {--inews-color-primary: #E33A11;--inews-color-secondary: #F7F3EF;--inews-color-tertiary: #E33A11;} Read Next square COUNCIL TAX .
inews__post__label__explained{background-color: #0a0a0a;color: #ffffff;}Explained85% of councils in England face maximum council tax rise - every increase mappedRead MoreAfter missing a single payment during his recovery, North East Lincolnshire Council demanded a full year’s worth – around £1,200. He and his partner were unable to find sum.In the summer of 2021, the council took court action to obtain a liability order.
Michael and his partner received multiple visits from bailiffs who were sent to enforce the order and recover the debt.“It was very troubling, traumatic, really scary to deal with them [the bailiffs],” he told The i Paper. “They were rude and arrogant, demanding the full amount.
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addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }“They kept threatening to come and take everything that we had, which was ridiculous considering we had nothing aside from my daughter’s stuff.”Michael contacted the council to complain and managed to work out a repayment plan while working in a pub on the minimum wage.“We had a terrible couple of years.
All I was eating was bread with ketchup or mustard spread on it, just so my baby daughter could eat,” he recalled.“The boiler had broken down and we went without hot water for two years. We didn’t have any carpets to cover the concrete floor of the flat we were living in.
It was so difficult to deal with it all. The relationship with my partner broke down.”Michael, 25, saw his debts mount up after he was in a motorcycle crashStruggling to repay, or prevent further arrears from mounting up, Michael’s council tax debt peaked at about £6,000 in the early months of 2023.
In October 2023 he found a job in IT as a systems architect, and began making headway in repaying what he owed. Having paid off around £600 a month, the debt is now down to just a few hundred pounds.Referring to the other debts which had piled up, he said: “I found commercial companies a lot easier to deal with than the council.
The council was not patient with me – not in the slightest.”if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }He said local authorities should “show more understanding with people, to understand how limited their income can be”, rather than turn so quickly to court action and bailiff enforcement.“I would like to see them be able to offer debt relief for vulnerable people who just cannot pay.
And the bailiffs need stronger regulation to stop them threatening people,” Michael added.Annual council tax debt hits £95m The amount of council tax debt seen by a single UK charity soared to almost £100m last year, according to figures shared with The i Paper.Council tax arrears among Citizens Advice clients across England, Wales and Scotland hit £95.
3m in the year to September 2024 – 20 per cent up on the previous year.#color-context-related-article-3550833 {--inews-color-primary: #F88379;--inews-color-secondary: #FEF2F1;--inews-color-tertiary: #F88379;} Read Next square COUNCIL TAX All the ways you can cut your council tax - with bills set to soar from AprilRead MoreSeparately, council tax arrears handled by the StepChange debt advice charity rose to £76.8m in the year to December 2024, up 10 per cent on the year before.
Experts have warned the debt crisis will get worse from April. Local authorities across the UK are set to raise council tax bills, some by 10 per cent or more.Myles Fitt, financial health lead at Citizens Advice Scotland, said the “speed and harshness” of councils’ enforcement action can surprise people.
After missing a single payment, local authorities can ask for repayment of a full year’s bill.if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l3"}); }Councils in England and Wales can then take court action to get a liability order. This allows them to use bailiffs to reclaim the debt.
Money can also be taken directly from someone’s benefit payments or their pay.About £1.3m worth of council tax debt was passed to bailiffs during the financial year 2022-23, according to research by the Money Advice Trust and the Centre for Social Justice.
In Scotland, local authorities can freeze bill-payers’ bank accounts. Scottish councils used the bank “arrestment” process 283,000 times in 2023-24 – up 50 per cent on the previous year.Households face action by bailiffs over unpaid council tax debt (Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty)StepChange, the Money Advice Trust and other charities have called for local authorities to make sure all residents receiving some form of council tax support – including those on benefits – are exempt from bailiff action.
They have also urged local authorities to slow down debt enforcement, so residents have at least three to six months before the demand that a full year’s bill is repaid.“The severe and rapid nature of the escalation in council tax debt collection is really quite shocking,” said Emily Whitford, senior public policy advocate at StepChange.Many clients were left “scared, anxious or depressed”, she added.
Whitford said the use of bailiffs often backfired by “prolonging indebtedness – forcing people to borrow money from friends or elsewhere”.if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l4"}); }Steve Vaid, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs the National Debtline, said bailiffs “should always be a last resort”, adding: “We’re seeing too many debts sent through to them by councils.”A spokesperson for North East Lincolnshire Council said they could not comment on Michael’s case.
But they encouraged anyone in financial trouble to contact them “as soon as they know they are going to have payment problems”.The spokesperson added: “The debt team works hard to negotiate with customers during all stages of the collection process, but often customers don’t engage until a liability order has already been issued to the enforcement agent.”They also said billpayers were given “options such as spreading the debt over a longer period” even after a liability order has been obtained.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it was the government’s “clear expectation that councils should be proportionate and sympathetic to those in hardship when collecting unpaid tax”..
