Council tax arrears have elevated by greater than £600m and now stands at a complete of £6.6bn, the most recent information printed this week by the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Native Authorities reveals.
StepChange Debt Charity, a serious supplier of debt recommendation and options, state that these figures level to a damaged system, as they arrive simply days after the Authorities introduced a session on council tax reform.
Along with Authorities figures, StepChange consumer information and polling reveals the dimensions of the council tax disaster:
+ YouGov polling for StepChange discovered that for these incomes beneath £35,000, near the median UK wage, 41% of are nervous about assembly their council tax funds.
+ The polling additionally discovered that nearly two-thirds of individuals (63%) are saving much less due to will increase in important family payments like council tax.
+ Over one in three (35%) of StepChange shoppers are in council tax arrears, and between monetary years 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, council tax arrears amongst StepChange shoppers have elevated by 16%, from £1,805, to £2,094.
Peter Tutton, director of coverage, Analysis and Public Affairs at StepChange Debt Charity, mentioned: “These figures are unsurprising and level to a damaged system which is repeatedly pushing essentially the most financially weak teams into hardship, as councils scramble to fund important providers towards an extremely troublesome monetary backdrop. As such, households throughout Britain have confronted vital will increase of their council tax funds, all coming at a time when different payments and common residing prices are going up throughout the board. Regardless of the perfect efforts of some councils, native authorities lack a binding set of requirements which might create an atmosphere to raised help folks in arrears going through monetary issue.
“Because it stands, current practices round council tax debt assortment solely exacerbate monetary issue and the truth is that the present system lacks compassion and readability. Our earlier analysis has constantly proven these debt assortment practices are worsening folks’s psychological well being and wellbeing – over 4 in 5 (85%) StepChange shoppers with council tax arrears mentioned the communications they obtained from their council about their arrears made them really feel scared, anxious or depressed.
“The federal government’s latest publication of a session on council tax debt assortment reforms marks a possibility for actual change. We’re calling on central authorities to reform current guidelines round council tax debt escalation, together with the punitive regulation which implies one single missed council tax cost can result in your council demanding a full yr’s cost.”
Council tax arrears by calendar yr per StepChange consumer:
| Shoppers in Arrears (%) | Estimated Quantity | Common Arrears | Proportion Change | |
| 2019 | 30% | 99222 | £ 1,146 | – |
| 2020 | 36% | 71633 | £1,292 | 13% |
| 2021 | 37% | 63356 | £1,578 | 22% |
| 2022 | 35% | 65547 | £1,659 | 5% |
| 2023 | 33% | 60477 | £1,726 | 4% |
| 2024 | 34% | 58116 | £1,972 | 14% |
