Councils fail to collect £2.5 billion Council Tax
A whopping £2.5 billion in Council Tax remains unpaid, dating right back to its introduction in 1993.
New figures from the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) have revealed that councils have failed to collect £2.5 billion of Council Tax.
This figure is the total amount of Council Tax owed, dating right back to its introduction in 1993. And around £195 million of Council Tax arrears which occurred before 2013/14 has been written off as “uncollectable”.
Overall collection rates remained roughly the same in 2013/14 as they were the previous year, with 97% of Council Tax recouped compared to 97.4% in 2012/2013.
Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis said that the figures showed there was still “lots of room to improve” when it comes to collecting Council Tax.
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The worst performers
Table five on this section of the Gov.uk website allows you to see the collection rates of each different council in England, so you can compare how your local council performs. I’ve picked out the local authorities with the worst collection rates in the table below.
|
Local authority |
Percentage of Council Tax collected 2013/14 |
Percentage of Council Tax collected 2012/13 |
|
Manchester |
91.7% |
92.9% |
|
Salford |
92.2% |
92.1% |
|
Newham |
92.5% |
93.2% |
|
Rochdale |
93% |
95.2% |
|
Blackpool |
93.1% |
95.5% |
|
Greenwich |
93.1% |
94.2% |
|
Nottingham |
93.2% |
93.5% |
|
Derby |
93.3% |
94.8% |
|
Middlesbrough |
93.4% |
96% |
|
Hackney |
93.6% |
93.5% |
|
Sheffield |
93.7% |
95.3% |
|
Oldham |
93.8% |
95.7% |
|
Doncaster |
93.8% |
94.9% |
|
Stoke-on-Trent |
93.9% |
96.5% |
|
Portsmouth |
94% |
95.1% |
|
Barking & Dagenham |
94.1% |
94.6% |
|
Lewisham |
94.1% |
94.2% |
|
Kingston-upon-Hull |
94.2% |
95.8% |
|
Tameside |
94.2% |
95.1% |
|
Bradford |
94.3% |
95.5% |
The collection rate in Manchester is clearly absolutely atrocious. The 8.3% that remains unpaid (dating back to the introduction of Council Tax) is worth a whopping £12 million. Neighbouring Salford is little better, responsible for a shortfall of £7 million, while Newham accounts for £6 million.
Council Tax debts
Citizens Advice and the StepChange Debt Charity have both reported significant jumps in the number of people struggling with Council Tax debt this year.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as changes to Council Tax benefit last year (which saw it replaced with a localised Council Tax support) meant that more than two million low-income families have had to pay an average of nearly £140 more Council Tax a year.
Council Tax arrears are classed as a priority debt, so not paying can lead to significant problems. Your local authority can apply to take the money you owe from your benefits or wages, bailiffs can be sent to your home or you could even be sent to prison.
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More on tax:
5.5 million paid wrong tax in 2013/14
Tax codes: how to check you're on the right one
Most Recent
Comments
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@electricblue. I expect there is a lot of this going on. The question is "Why is he still there?" We get the leaders and managers we deserve because we allow them to get away with it. My sister constantly complains about benefit cheats which she knows and refuses to give me the details or do anything about it. Sadly, we get the governments we deserve for much the same reason and, as someone has already pointed out, one lot gets in by promising things we cannot afford and the other gets kicked out for trying to sort the mess out. As far as the man you describe is concerned he is only an example of what is going on at all levels of industry and administration and his actions are seen by many as a right. If we do not punish this sort of activity we condone it and it spreads, like a lot of other modern problems. We also have the problem of those in power spending a fortune on a personal pet projects ignoring sound arguments about its folly. I wonder how many such projects other readers can identify both at local and central government level. I remember a phrase used in an organisation I once worked for. "Promoted to the level of their incompetence."
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Back to the story of my fat neighbour who heads up the council property maintenance department. Now he wears a suit, but only five years ago and for the ten before that he was a maintenance team leader working on a salary plus 'all the materials you can steal' remuneration. The man is a joke throughout the town with every family knowing someone he supplied (stolen) materials to. So much for accountability.
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There seems to be an amount of emotive writings here especially on the subject of waste. May I make a suggestion? Every Council is obliged to put into the public domain, usually their website, the total spend of over £500 made every month. Usually, they publish every amount. What is most astonishing is the small amount payable, my council, for May 2014, the smallest amounts were £1.13 and £1.8. Now think of the backoffice effort to process these small amounts to the Council and the recipient? To my mind it is inefficient and costs more to process than to pay or collect. Also a large number of purchases are through centralised purchasing organisations. Inspect the individual purchases and then compare them with the same item on Mysupermarket.com, then take an aspirin and have a lie down. This contributes to excessive tax take.
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08 July 2014