Why? Well council tax increasingly affects low income households.

A third of people in arrears are living below the poverty line, and 79% are households in the bottom half of earners. People aren't avoiding tax, they're just broke.

Arrears now stand at £6.6bn for England, £1.5bn for Scotland and £0.16bn for Wales. These are huge numbers, and clearly they're only travelling in one direction.

Collection rates remain high, but have never fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

Most of that increase is driven by arrears from across England, with arrears going from £6.0bn last year to £6.6bn this year - an 11% increase.

However, Wales has seen the biggest increase - 15% yoy; 170% over 5 years.

I don't tweet much anymore, but new council tax arrears numbers out this morning are a reason to break a good habit.

Huge 11% increase in amount of council tax debt across Britain, standing now at £8.3bn. An increase of 11% since last year, and up 79% over the last 5 years.

3: And for that £500, not even an email was sent to ask him to pay his bill - despite the council having this person's email address.

The case for reform couldn't be clearer. But as long as this treatment is only of concern when someone is mistakenly on the receiving end, nothing will change.

2: The article isn't super clear, but it sounds like this person had £500+ in bailiff fees and a liability order.

That means they are paying 50% MORE than their original debt just in servicing fees.

1: That anyone should be threatened with the removal of their car unless they pay £1600 in 24 hours. These tactics are designed to cause stress & anxiety, and foce you to pay when you feel trapped.

Jeeez it’s really snowing in London my dudes

Funny how often "competitive" = being allowed to scam your customers without fear of reprisal.

www.ft.com/content/8022...

Sure, this affects both genders (albeit differently - see below), but there's a whole ecosystem of (often racist or sexist) influencers waiting to exploit young men by insisting you can solve these problems yourself (e.g. weird crypto schemes, financial bootcamps, etc).

But the harm done here is crucial. People in CTs arrears are likely to be experiencing all sorts of harms far more acutely than those not behind.

This is true even if we control for having a diagnosed mental health condition.

If you don't pay your final notice, councils can now apply for a "Liability Order". A bulk process through magistrates courts that allows them to send in the bailiffs.

These cost councils just 50p in fees. They'll charge you up to £155 for the pleasure.

graph credit: CSJ

Think that sounds unaffordable? Correct.

91% OF PEOPLE IN COUNCIL TAX ARREARS CAN'T AFFORD A BILL OF £1000. Even if they borrowed money.

The other groups more likely to be behind: People from minoritised ethnic groups, young people and PEOPLE WITHOUT ANY MONEY.

Our research found that a quarter of people in council tax arrears have an income of under £9,500 a year. 82% have an income of less than £30,000.

This report fills that gap for local government. Council Tax debt collection is absolutely fraught with harm - that's why we call it the #counciltaxtrap.

We found that 3.3m people are behind on council tax debts. People w/ mental health probs are twice as likely to be behind.