CAB urges council tax debt collection rethink as complaints about bailiffs rise by 30%
Councils should re-think the ways that they pursue unpaid council tax debts, the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has said after recording a 30% increase in the number of people seeking help to deal with bailiffs chasing unpaid council tax in the last three years.
Complaints of aggressive behaviour and overcharging by bailiffs have also been rising, the CAB said.
“We continue to see much the same problems as we have been reporting for years, namely with the level of fees charged by bailiffs, bailiff conduct, including bullying, harassment and intimidation, and issues around affordability,” a CAB spokesperson said. “We are seeing problems with the use of bailiffs in relation to council tax debt getting worse. This was already happening before the onset of the recession and is most likely connected to big increases in council tax charges.”
CAB has argued that the use of bailiffs to collect debts by seizing goods is open to abuse and leaves many people in debt with no real protection. For instance, a CAB case study revealed that a bailiff in Walthamstow took one client by the throat over an unpaid parking fine. He owed £120 but this had escalated to £1,000 by the time that the bailiff appeared. Another case study by CAB reported bailiffs arrived at the home of a client in London and threatened to break the door down. The bailiff then threatened to seize the family dog along with other possessions.
CAB said councils should be following the best practice example set by those leading the way on dealing with council tax arrears that avoids the use of bailiffs, especially in cases where people have genuine payment difficulties. In its Collection of Council Tax Arrears Good Practice Protocol, developed in conjunction with the Local Government Association, the CAB recommends that local authorities and advice agencies should work together to develop a fair collection and enforcement policy, with particular regard to vulnerable people and specifying clear procedures about how they should be dealt with. The protocol also suggests local authorities consider informal complaints as evidence of problems with collection or enforcement with bailiffs.
The Bureau has long lobbied for regulation of bailiffs, which is currently scheduled to be introduced in 2012. “We think what is really important now is to get the regulation right so that the regulator has the right powers, there is an enforceable code of conduct that means standards are raised and there is an end to the sort of abuse we have seen going on over many years,” a CAB spokesperson said.
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