Paying Council Tax in Twelve Monthly Instalments

hodgester

little owl, you say unfounded so let me quote you with some facts. My area consists of approximately 60,000 households. I keep stats for collection and recovery figures for my authority. Now bare in mind 65% of our catchment area pay by DD so 39,000 properties. In june last year, we summonsed 2,500 properties for non/late payment. Over the year, that total has risen to over 7,500. We have received via our customer service centre 11,000 requests for changes to payments outside of the statutory demands, ie can we payin feb/march and/or later in the month. We have sent over 23,000 reminders (which don't go out until the 2nd half of the month). This area is considered by the government to be in the top ten most affluent areas in the UK.

I've worked in other areas, including one very famous university city, where these figures are considered chicken feed. In fact in that city, at one point 4,500 council tax accounts were with a bailiff. This was the tip of the iceberg as they had virtually given up trying to trace debtors.

Res Ipsa Loquitor, council tax evasion is massive and you might choose not to believe it but hey, i see it every day. I have no truck with these people, yes, the bills are high, I have to try and pay it on top of the mortgage etc as well. I have ran lots of debt clinics at various authorities and quite often people will provide evidence of their ingoings/outgoings and you would find that they kept on top of their other bills, for fear of losing services, but let council tax go, often for years because they didn't open the door to bailiffs and ignored the council's vague threats about bankruptcy/imprisonment, Yes 'most' people pay by DD, and for many reasons (efficiency, savings, prevention of recovery), we strive to get more people to do it that way but essentially we use recovery documents to 'educate' people into paying as their statutory demand states to prevent what i've previously stated. Yes, our customers do complain that we are heavy handed etc, etc but then they will also complain first when the bills go up, so we can't win!!!

margaretclare

I've just changed the payment date on my direct debit from 10th to 1st of the month. No problem at all - council have just sent me a revised bill showing the new dates. Smooth and trouble-free.

It does seem, however, that there is a lot of resistance to paying council tax, whereas, as hodgester says, people do their best to pay for other services rather than risk losing heat and light etc. You occasionally read of people being sent to prison for non-payment and usually they say they have the money to pay but it's a protest. So there is this resentment around.

Council tax for us is the largest slice of our monthly household outgoings. We're in 'C' band and it's £108 a month for 12 months. This amount has increased hugely over the past few years, other expenses have gone up but not by the same proportion. In 2000, for example, it was £10.35 a month. So, it has risen by 10% over 7 years.

littleowl

hodgester wrote: »

little owl, you say unfounded so let me quote you with some facts. My area consists of approximately 60,000 households. I keep stats for collection and recovery figures for my authority. Now bare in mind 65% of our catchment area pay by DD so 39,000 properties. In june last year, we summonsed 2,500 properties for non/late payment. Over the year, that total has risen to over 7,500. We have received via our customer service centre 11,000 requests for changes to payments outside of the statutory demands, ie can we payin feb/march and/or later in the month. We have sent over 23,000 reminders (which don't go out until the 2nd half of the month). This area is considered by the government to be in the top ten most affluent areas in the UK.

I've worked in other areas, including one very famous university city, where these figures are considered chicken feed. In fact in that city, at one point 4,500 council tax accounts were with a bailiff. This was the tip of the iceberg as they had virtually given up trying to trace debtors.

Res Ipsa Loquitor, council tax evasion is massive and you might choose not to believe it but hey, i see it every day. I have no truck with these people, yes, the bills are high, I have to try and pay it on top of the mortgage etc as well. I have ran lots of debt clinics at various authorities and quite often people will provide evidence of their ingoings/outgoings and you would find that they kept on top of their other bills, for fear of losing services, but let council tax go, often for years because they didn't open the door to bailiffs and ignored the council's vague threats about bankruptcy/imprisonment, Yes 'most' people pay by DD, and for many reasons (efficiency, savings, prevention of recovery), we strive to get more people to do it that way but essentially we use recovery documents to 'educate' people into paying as their statutory demand states to prevent what i've previously stated. Yes, our customers do complain that we are heavy handed etc, etc but then they will also complain first when the bills go up, so we can't win!!!

I don't doubt what you say, I was merely pointing out that choosing the option to pay Council Tax over 12 months is not the road to perdition!

loveandlight

Exactly littleowl and despite what hodgester says, I still don't understand why some councils let you pay your annual council tax bill over 12 months and other councils won't.

CLAPTON

the basic problem is that this is a typical state monoply situation

-because they always did it this way
-because they are legally allowed to do this (but they are NOT required to do this)
-and because you can go to prison if you dont pay
-and because you have no alternative.

any private company where there was any competition would be bankrupt in a week if they treated their customers this way (which is of course why the water companies can get away with it too).

hodgester

okay, i'll try again.if people pay their council tax over 12 months then the councils borrow more money to pay the government. more interest is paid and this is paid for from either capital reserves or the spending budget. to ensure that the council does not become insolvent or have to cut services still further, council tax increases,in part, to meet the difference.

You can perceive this anyway you like but it is the facts of life regarding why most councils require you to pay over 10 months. However, I'll leave you to your conspiracy theories.....

CLAPTON

hodgester wrote: »

okay, i'll try again.if people pay their council tax over 12 months then the councils borrow more money to pay the government. more interest is paid and this is paid for from either capital reserves or the spending budget. to ensure that the council does not become insolvent or have to cut services still further, council tax increases,in part, to meet the difference.

You can perceive this anyway you like but it is the facts of life regarding why most councils require you to pay over 10 months. However, I'll leave you to your conspiracy theories.....

presumably, as a decent chap you always send the HMRC your yearly tax a year in advance (so they need to borrow less money and so we all pay less tax).

the increase in council interest is exactly balanced by the lose to council tax payers... a zero sum game

hodgester

errr how does paying your council tax on time every month equate with paying your income tax in full at the start of the year?

Please explain where I suggest paying council tax as a lump sum in full on april 1st?

CLAPTON

you have two threads in your comments

one about people paying their council tax properly which I fully support and the other justifying a 10 month payment schedule based on the argument that otherwise council tax will have to go up. Will this is true, it doesn't make it the right course of action and so I was trying to illustrate by reduction ad adsurbum (or whatever).

wolvoman

hodgester wrote: »

errr how does paying your council tax on time every month equate with paying your income tax in full at the start of the year?

Please explain where I suggest paying council tax as a lump sum in full on april 1st?

Ok perhaps not as a lump sum but try this.

I pay income tax each month as PAYE, for 12 months. Why can't I pay council tax this way? Why am I giving my council an extra 2 months to sit on MY money?