Time to end toxic council tax debt
Millions of pounds of ‘unpayable’ Council Tax debt will be written off if MSPs agree to changes proposed by Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer this week.
If passed, the changes would end the current situation where Council Tax debts in Scotland are chased for almost four times longer than in England before they are written off.
Scottish Council Tax debt is currently only written off after twenty years, despite the equivalent rule in England being six years. This two decade clock also resets every time someone acknowledges or tries to pay off their debts, effectively meaning that debts are permanently held and pursued, even when there is no prospect of them being paid off.
Most other forms of debt in Scotland are subject to a five year cut-off for collection efforts.
Anti-poverty campaigners including Aberlour say that current council and government debt collectors “trap families in a cycle of poverty, through seized benefits, missed payments, new loans and extortionate interest.”
The Scottish Greens are now forcing a vote at Stage 3 of the Housing (Scotland) Bill this week to reduce the time limit for Council Tax arrears from 20 years to 6 years, arguing that debts held for this long are typically ‘unpayable’ and that is it not worth the cost to councils to pursue them, not to mention the harm this often causes to families already in crisis.
If passed, this proposal would effectively cancel any Council Tax debts built up before 2020.
It would also end the current situation where vulnerable people avoid going to their local council for help with other issues in their lives due to a fear that they will be chased for debts they cannot afford to pay off.
Ross said:
“Scotland’s system for collecting Council tax debts is far harsher than England’s. It traps families in decades-long cycles of poverty and it needs to end.
“I urged the First Minister to support this proposal in my first question to him as co-leader of the Scottish Greens. My amendment would wipe out unpayable historic debts and help families who currently live in fear of every knock at the door. I hope that he and the Scottish Government will give it their backing this week.
“Together we can end this scandal and let the people affected get their lives back on track. If not, thousands of vulnerable people will stay locked into cycles of poverty which they can’t break out of. It’s time for Parliament to wipe out these toxic debts.”