Enforcement agents collect £1.14million in unpaid council tax in Northumberland

Dave Chapman, managing director of Rossendales, which carries out debt collection for the authority, revealed the figure, covering the period from July 2018 to January this year, during a presentation to corporate services committee on Monday March 9.

Keith Teasdale, the council’s recovery manager, said: “The number of cases which progress to enforcement are relatively small based on the number of taxpayers we have, but what it’s important for members to understand is that there are cases where we have no options but enforcement.”

Both Mr Teasdale and Mr Chapman referred to the new legislation in this area which was introduced in 2014, with the latter saying it had ‘revolutionised enforcement’.

As well as replacing the term bailiff with enforcement agent, it provides greater all-round clarity, a set and transparent fee structure, and protection for vulnerable debtors.

Mr Chapman explained that one of the main outcomes was that his enforcement agents now focused heavily on the compliance stage – trying to contact customers by other means before they receive a knock on the door.

“We have 240 people working seven days a week at a call centre, because we want to give customers as many chances as possible to pay,” he said.

He set out the range of methods and technologies involved in that, noting that since the company, which operates nationally, introduced a ‘plain English’ letter 18 months ago, they had seen a 15% rise in contacts.

The legal requirement for how long the compliance stage has to last is seven clear days, however, for Northumberland County Council, a 20-day period is used, extended to 30 days for those impacted by this year’s cut to council-tax support.

Mr Chapman also talked about how Rossendales has a special welfare support unit ‘to support those in chronic financial hardship’, while all staff are trained to identify and deal with customer vulnerability.

“We need to get the won’t-pays rather than the can’t-pays,” he added.

He noted the national campaign, Stop the Knock, which sought to limit enforcement agents turning up on people’s doorsteps, but he said that vulnerability is better identified in a customer’s home environment.

Since 2014, when the new legislation came in, the company engaged with 11,246 council tax customers in Northumberland, of which 1,232 (11%) were identified as potentially vulnerable and £379, 915 was recovered from them.

Mr Chapman said: “This shows that if you work with vulnerable people, remove the fees and give them longer to pay, you can have success.”

Northumberland County Council states on its website that using direct debit is a simple way to ensure payments are paid automatically each month.

Council chiefs say its efficiency means lower collection costs and lower council tax rises. Residents have the option to pay 10 or 12-monthly installments on either the 1st, 15th or 28th of the month.

For more information on paying council tax bills, visit https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Tax/Pay.aspx .