It is estimated that struggling households have billions of council tax to pay before rise

distress families owe billions of pounds worth of outstanding council tax, yet the charges look set to continue to increase during the coming years.Figures published new reveal local authorities in England have £6.6bn owed to them, in addition to which an extra pound 642m of arrears was added during the year ending April.Data that are separate in Scotland and Wales has been translated to the fact that the total cumulative owed in the three countries has shot over £8bn.A more humane approach to the collection of council tax debts should be used in place of bailiffs according to campaigners.Whereas the government is prepared to transform the rule regarding how it is chasing unpaid bills, the Treasury is also anticipating that council tax would be increasing by 5 percent every year in the future.Chief Secretary Darren Jones told a committee on Wednesday reviewing the recent Spending Review, asked whether the Treasury was "baking in" a 5 per cent rise, replied: "We are doing that, yes."This is the limit the council can raise the council tax, but councils may increase council tax beyond this limit by either having a local referendum or winning permission of the central government.

Falling behind

The recent releases of the statistics of England indicate that, within 12 months ending in April, the amount of council tax gathered by the local authorities exceeded a sum of 41.2 bn regardless of the relevance in the year. This was a growth of 2.8bn or 7.2 per cent, in relation to the previous year.But in the same period; the cumulative total owed has increased by 11%.In Scotland, 1.5bn is due and in Wales, there exist arrears of 160m.Charities have long insisted that the English system of collecting council tax amounts to penalising the people who are indeed struggling to pay.Failure to pay a bill issued every month after three weeks, or three late payments, in England results in the council issuing a demand, requiring the rest of the year to be paid or the council tax liable is equal to the rest of the year at full amount.

They are then able to send bailiffs subsequently to collect the debt."Individuals in council tax arrears are largely on low incomes and many of them are living in poverty," added Toby Murray, debt justice charity. Instead of offering assistance, the councils are recruiting the bailiffs to people who cannot manage to pay their bills - penalizing the poor. Councils are urged to cease the use of bailiffs in collections of council tax debts and come up with urgent reforms."The government recently announced proposals to limit the amount of interest (which capitalizes on debt) added when seeking recourse to the courts as well as waiving the restrictions on when a household should be liable to be charged an entire year of bill at full rate.Some of the debt enforcement practices that ministers are considering include the actions of bailiffs are already being examined.They are also suggesting that 12 monthly council tax payments should be a default change as opposed to 10.