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Thousands of pounds in unpaid council tax to be recovered

Finance chiefs in Wolverhampton are striving to recover thousands of pounds in unpaid council tax – but insist they don’t want to drive any genuinely cash-strapped households into further debt.

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Bosses will recover any unpaid council tax

Councillors met last week to look at different ways of enforcing a more effective debt recovery policy without creating any new money woes for families living on the breadline.

Despite stressing that the payment of council tax was "not a voluntary option" and had to be collected as a matter of priority, members of the council’s Scrutiny Panel agreed the local authority needed to take a sensitive approach to recovering outstanding funds.

Recovery manager Tracey Richards said: "This is about tracking down the people who are able to pay but haven’t, while at the same time providing debt support to those who are struggling.

"My job is to collect the money, although I fully understand that a lot of households are in financial difficulties and as a council we respect that. But we do need people to be paying something on a regular basis.

"It does have high repercussions for a household if they don’t pay.

“If we can avoid using enforcement agents then the payment would be on a set percentage based on the customer’s income.

"With regard to low value debts, we also have low value costs and we don’t then have the enforcement fees."

'Balancing act'

Councillor Louise Miles said: “This is a real balancing act. It’s our responsibility to collect and achieve this income locally. Also, it would be interesting to see whether it’s the same people and households who don’t pay their council tax year on year.”

Members agreed that the issue should be put forward for further scrutiny so all options could be explored thoroughly.

Councillor Stephen Simkins said: “I think we need to look at all our services regarding collections. If we are going to chase someone for money then there’s a chance they are going to end up in court.

"Once people are shoved into debt it’s a spiral. We really need to do some work on that.

"I would say that a lot of other local authorities are having the same problem as we are here in Wolverhampton, and I would imagine there are a lot of families where both adults work and yet they are still in debt."

Councillor Roger Lawrence added: "This has always been a real challenge for local authorities. If we fail to collect the council tax then we are held accountable.

"When you look at the debt over five years, most of the cash that hasn’t been collected by year one has been collected by year five.

"Paying council tax is not a voluntary option. But at the same time debt support is absolutely crucial and we need to respond sensitively to the issues people have."

Councillors are set to discuss the matter further at a later date.