Council tax dodgers are stealing from us all, says Leicester mayor
City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has condemned council tax dodgers who have avoided paying nearly £3.5 million in the past three years.
He said that those who had not paid the charge were "stealing from everyone else in Leicester".
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Sir Peter Soulsby
The authority has been forced to write off the cash after all attempts to collect it failed. A total of £1 million in unpaid council tax was written off last year, £1.3 million in 2009/10, and £1.1 million in 2008/09.
Sir Peter said: "Council tax helps to pay for the services that people use every day, from road maintenance and libraries to housing and care for the elderly.
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"People who deliberately avoid paying council tax and make no attempt to settle their outstanding payments are stealing from everyone else in Leicester."
The news comes at a time when the authority is one year into a four-year drive to save £100 million to help it balance the books.
Wheelchair user John Hargrave, 68, of Beaumont Leys, uses the Douglas Bader Day Centre, in Malabar Road, St Matthew's, which was threatened with closure earlier this year due to council funding cuts. The centre is now on a more stable financial footing.
He said: "Centres such as mine are a lifeline to people with disabilities and they simply wouldn't exist without the funding and support of the city council.
"It's disgraceful that some people simply aren't paying their council tax. It's everyone in the city who suffers as a result."
If a payment is missed, the council will send a reminder notice for the unpaid debt.
A council spokesman said the authority was willing to help people who were genuinely struggling financially to pay their way.
But if the reminder is ignored, a court summons that includes at least £55 in costs will be sent out.
Residents are given at least 14 days' notice of the court hearing date and the council takes no further action if the charge is paid in full before the hearing.
If the case reaches court and an order is made against a non-payer, the council can attempt to have the debt taken out of earnings or benefits. If, for whatever reason, that does not work, bailiffs can be called in.
The council can also file to make someone bankrupt if the outstanding amount is more than £750.
Finally, if all of this fails, the debtor can be jailed for up to three months.
When all of those steps have been taken and the council still does not have the money, it is written off.
Council tax is also written off when someone dies and their estate does not have enough money to cover the debt, and when someone simply cannot be traced by the council.
Figures released under Freedom of Information laws show that a total of £10 million of debt, including the council tax, has been written off by the city council in the past three years.
Some £4 million of the remainder was outstanding business rates which councils give to the Government.
The rest included unpaid council house rent and car parking fines.
Leicestershire County Council wrote-off £700,000 in the same period, but that does not include council tax or business rates which are collected by the district councils.
3 Comments
by how_v_dare_u
Sunday, May 19 2013, 9:38PM
“The scales of justice are seriously in need of re-calibration
http://tinyurl.com/cz9397t”
by over2you
Saturday, May 18 2013, 4:24PM
“http://tinyurl.com/cbasrn8”
by over2you
Saturday, May 18 2013, 4:23PM
“http://tinyurl.com/crl25lv”
by c_4_yourself
Wednesday, September 12 2012, 9:36AM
“by 4_t_figh
http://tinyurl.com/8uo8n7l
"Of all the people in this world to come up with this, Peter Soulsby is possibly the last man with any justification. This is the low-grade slime who most recently wangled himself a pay rise from £56,000 to £100,000 – a man with a history of being extremely liberal when it comes to rewarding himself and his own from the public purse."
Good point..”
by c_4_yourself
Wednesday, September 12 2012, 9:34AM
“WhAt!!!”
by just_a_minute
Monday, September 03 2012, 7:47PM
“by poly_anchor, Monday, September 03 2012, 9:42AM
What's the significance of the reference to JayBe11?”
by poly_anchor
Monday, September 03 2012, 9:51AM
“The elective rip-off
http://tinyurl.com/8nuntog
"In what should be the death knell for the very idea of elected mayors, we read in the Daily Fail that former MP Sir Peter Soulsby, and now mayor of Leicester, is in line for an 80 percent pay rise.
This is despite his own council making £70million-worth of spending cuts, and cutting back 1,000 council jobs, in a move that could see his pay go up from £56,000 to £100,000. Soulsby's deputy could more than double his salary from £34,000 to £75,000. Six assistant mayors would pocket 65 percent increases from £26,000 to £40,000, and all 47 city councillors would see their basic allowances go up 20 percent from £10,000 to £12,000.
Therein lies the ultimate outcome of the misplaced vogue for "democratising" local government by adding yet another layer of highly-paid elected officials to the structure. One can well see why the political classes like the idea, but all one ends up with is another layer of highly-paid elected officials to the structure, with no demonstrable enhancements in standards of government.
The problem, of course, resides in the fatal confusion between elections and accountability, it being assumed that the need to get re-elected exerts a restraining influence on the greed of ambitious officials. But given that, as an MP, Soulsby employed his two daughters, Lauren and Eleanor, as junior secretaries and his wife, who earned £25,000 a year as office manager, there was never much chance of such restraint.
Wittering for Witney explores further the failings of representative democracy here, arguing that change is required to our system of democracy. And as long as there are troughers such as Peter Soulsby around, he is not wrong.
It really is about time somebody did some serious thinking about the nature of this democracy of ours and where we are going, breaking away from the simplistic notions that currently govern our structures. Not least, we need to recall that politics is about power, and the ability merely to select one's tormentors (very often from a rigged list) without any means of controlling them is no democracy at all."”
by poly_anchor
Monday, September 03 2012, 9:42AM
“JayBe11,
Have a read of this for a start. You'll have to maginify to see the text in your browser.
http://tinyurl.com/cq2cn7e
http://tinyurl.com/9kgzy2n
"*********** said its charges were fair and agreed with councils. The company said £130 was a reasonable sum to charge for bailiffs who had to wait for a householder."
These are statutory charges, and unfortunately for ***********, there is no such thing as a "waiting fee", so, they are breaking the law when they charge this.
Another one for JayBe11 to look at:
The Sunday Telegraph
http://tinyurl.com/3pa8uhu
http://tinyurl.com/8w26gaf
"Where wholesale fraud has entered this system, since many councils outsourced their debt collection to private firms, is that the bailiffs pile on charges for all these things without doing any of the work required. Instead of visiting, they pay for threatening letters to be pushed through the door (known as "phantom visits"). A bailiff then arrives with a pre-prepared handwritten bill for "levy distress", supposedly to cover all his costs for assessing and removing the goods – but again with no intention of doing the work for which he is charging. If this doesn't work, he then returns once more to do the work for which he has already charged – again adding further illegal charges which can be as high as £1,000."
You can of course watch the full ITV documentary exposing *********** in these four youtube videos:
http://tinyurl.com/8ulbvtn
AND:
Sunday Times April 8, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/95pc4p9”
by 4_t_figh
Monday, September 03 2012, 9:18AM
“An entitlement culture
http://tinyurl.com/8uo8n7l
"Of all the people in this world to come up with this, Peter Soulsby is possibly the last man with any justification. This is the low-grade slime who most recently wangled himself a pay rise from £56,000 to £100,000 – a man with a history of being extremely liberal when it comes to rewarding himself and his own from the public purse.
That this man, without so much as a blush, can then turn round and accuse taxpayers of "theft" when they show less than enthusiasm for lining his pockets is more than a little staggering – although entirely typical of the breed.
Imbued in public officials such as these is an entirely unrestrained sense of entitlement, a conviction that because they decide – with application of force of dubious provenance – that we owe them a living, we should roll over and pay them what they consider theirs, without demurral.
For sure, it is the case that, should a significant number of people refuse to pay, or otherwise avoid paying, then the burden of taxation then falls heavier on those who are unable to evade payment, but that is hardly a justification for the grand larceny that has become local taxation.
What people like Soulsby so blithely ignore is that they lack mandate and thus any democratic legitimacy for the imposts which they routinely and so easily levy on their taxpayers. That makes their taxes nothing more than legitimised theft. Refusing to succumb to attempts at theft can hardly itself be considered theft.
Soulsby is in fact lucky that we are largely a compliant nation, and tolerate taxation levels for a lack of service which would have other communities out in the streets rioting. Notably, though, when it comes to actually collecting the money, Soulsby relies on his bailiffs and licensed thugs. One would like perhaps, to see him going door-to-door personally, to collect his bunce. It would be interesting to see how far he got."”
by spalding1944
Saturday, September 01 2012, 10:10AM
“Pete's the last one to talk about non poll tax payment isn't he ?”