Each year, councils across the country send bailiffs to collect unpaid council tax from over a million households. As council tax debt rises sharply, councils’ reliance on bailiffs risks pushing people in financial difficulty to breaking point.
These households are not avoiding payment. They are living with low incomes, unable to regularly save, often renting and facing soaring bills. They are simply struggling to make ends meet. Using bailiffs, who add expensive charges and are
frequently reported to harass and intimidate people in debt, only makes their lives harder.
Local authorities, who should be representing their residents, are instead pursuing them. Not only does this bailiff-led approach fail people in debt, but our evidence shows it fails councils and taxpayers too. Using bailiffs bears little relation to higher
collection rates and may even be self-defeating, increasing demand for housing and mental health support for which local authorities are left to fund.
This report begins with a brief overview of who bailiffs are and the powers they hold. Using data from the UK Longitudinal Household Study (Understanding Society) we examine who is most likely to fall into council tax arrears, and why. Following this, we then set out the case for urgent reform and make two core recommendations to
the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
- Revoke section 45 of the Council Tax Regulations 1992, that allows councils to use bailiffs to collect council tax debt, and
- Introduce a new duty of care that puts harm reduction at the heart of council tax collection. These reforms should be first steps towards ending the use of bailiffs for collecting council tax debt.
This briefing adds vital data to the growing consensus that the bailiff-led model of council tax debt collection is broken. It is imperative that we move beyond it.