Government should stop councils using bailiffs ‘on vulnerable taxpayers’

[NewsBot]

The government should stop local authorities passing council tax debts to bailiffs in the case of the most vulnerable residents, according to the Money Advice Trust.

 

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[Bailiff Advice]

I am not sure whether or not you wish for comments/discussions to be made on this Sticky. To be on the safe side, I will start a new discussion thread.

[citizenB]

 

The Money Advice Trust welcomed the recommendation and called for the government to go further, by explicitly putting an end to the use of bailiffs for recipients of local council tax support, who are likely to be the most financially vulnerable of all those in arrears.

 

The Money Advice Trust’s recent Stop The Knock research, highlighted in Ollerenshaw’s report, revealed that 1.27 million council tax debts were referred to bailiffs by councils in 2014/2015.

 

 

I think this is a good idea, it is stupid to involve bailiffs along with the extra costs involved for people who are already being supported financially by the tax payer.

 

At the moment, vulnerability is only concerned with Physical or Mental health issues - those who have extremely low incomes are also vulnerable. Those extra costs then reduce the amount of household spending for food/heating/rent and if children are involved - it must cause no end of stress.

[silverfox1961]

This thread should become unstuck some time later today. I copied it over from the Credit Today form as I felt it would be more relevant here.

[Bailiff Advice]

The subject matter (LCTS)....(sometimes more commonly called council tax benefit), is a very important subject and I have started a new thread here:

 

I have also given the thread a new title.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?462701-Local-Council-Tax-Support-(LCTS)-and-whether-accounts-should-be-referred-to-bailiffs.(20-Viewing)-nbsp