FOI Request - Council Tax Arrears

Request 101003055419

For the period 2018/19 -2021/22 by year, and, if possible, for households containing families with children specifically (If it is not possible to break the data down by families with children then please could you provide the following information for all households):

1.  How many households in total were in Council Tax arrears? How many households in total were there in your local authority?

2.  How many households in Council Tax arrears became subject to a Summary Warrant?

3.  How many households in Council Tax arrears became subject to a Charge for Payment?

4.  How many cases of Council Tax arrears had third party deductions applied?

5.  How many households in Council Tax arrears became subject to a bank arrestment?

6.  How many households in Council Tax arrears became subject to an earnings arrestment?

7.  How many cases of Council Tax arrears were referred to sheriff’s officers?

a.  What was the value of the Council Tax arrears referred to sheriff’s officers?

b.  What was the value of the arrears recovered?

c.  What were the costs of the sheriff’s officers action (including costs faced by households and costs faced by the council)?

Response 25-05-2022

The responses below relate to all households within Moray. We have no requirement on our Council Tax database to hold whether a household does, or does not, contain children.  Please view these responses on that basis.

1. All households which were in arrears would initially receive a reminder or final notice.  In order to provide you with a response to this question, I have listed the number of recovery documents issued to households in each year.

2018-19 - number of recovery documents issued: 8,981;
2019-20 - number of recovery documents issued: 9,589;
2020-21 - number of recovery documents issued: 7,033;
2021-22 - number of recovery documents issued: 8,916.

2. 

2018-19 - number of Summary Warrants obtained: 5,412;
2019-20 - number of Summary Warrants obtained: 5,432;
2020-21 - number of Summary Warrants obtained: 2,550;
2021-22 - number of Summary Warrants obtained: 4,873.

3.

2018-19 - number of charges for payment served: 1,753;
2019-20 - number of charges for payment served: 3,019;
2020-21 - number of charges for payment served: 1,831;
2021-22 - number of charges for payment served: 2,211.

4.

2018-19 - number of third-party deductions sought: 0;
2019-20 - number of third-party deductions sought: 0;
2020-21 - number of third-party deductions sought: 0;
2021-22 - number of third-party deductions sought: 0.

5. 

2018-19 - number of bank arrestments obtained: 102;
2019-20 - number of bank arrestments obtained: 103;
2020-21 - number of bank arrestments obtained: 96;
2021-22 - number of bank arrestments obtained: 126.

6.

2018-19 - number of earnings arrestments obtained: 609;
2019-20 - number of earnings arrestments obtained: 591;
2020-21 - number of earnings arrestments obtained: 237;
2021-22 - number of earnings arrestments obtained: 510.

7.

2018-19 - number of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: 4,129;
2019-20 - number of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: 4,485;
2020-21 - number of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: 2,513
2021-22 - number of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: 3,633.

a. 

2018-19 - value of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: £3,216,383;
2019-20 - value of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: £3,668,414;
2020-21 - value of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: £2,429,740;
2021-22 - value of accounts passed to Sheriff's Officers for enforcement: £3,387,118.

b. Although the local authority has fully recorded and accounted for all income it has received, it does not hold in a reportable format data on the value of monies which were collected against Summary Warrants in the year in which they were obtained (i.e. of the monies we received in 2018, we cannot say how much of it was credited to 2018 warrants).

I have for the purposes of the Freedom of Information request, stated below the total amount that was collected in each year by Sherriff's Officers, albeit this total will include monies paid against warrants obtained in earlier years.

2018-19 - value of monies collected by Sheriff's Officers: £2,541,263;
2019-20 - value of monies collected by Sheriff's Officers: £2,595,674;
2020-21 - value of monies collected by Sheriff's Officers: £1,456,664;
2021-22 - value of monies collected by Sheriff's Officers: £2,319,164.

c. The costs which are detailed below relate to statutory fees which are incurred to the Sheriff's Officers by debtors.  These do not include costs incurred by the local authority as these are determined by a commercially confidential contract between the local authority and its Sheriff Officer contractor and are thus exempt from disclosure.

2018-19 - value of fees incurred by debtors: £187,475;
2019-20 - value of fees incurred by debtors: £289,214;
2020-21 - value of fees incurred by debtors: £170,765;
2021-22 - value of fees incurred by debtors: £233,942.