Council tax enforcement for 2022/2023 period
Case reference FOI2023/01657
Published 23 October 2023
Request
1. In relation to your collection of council tax for the 2022/2023 council tax period please provide the total number of referrals/debts passed to enforcement agents.
2. Please confirm the name of the enforcement company used by the council for the recovery of council tax debt.
3. Please confirm if accounts which are part of the council tax reduction/support scheme are passed to enforcement companies and if so how many such cases were passed on for the 2022/23 council tax period.
4. Please confirm if accounts of people on health/disability related benefits such as Disability Living Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Personal Independence Payment are passed to enforcement companies and if so how many such cases were passed on for the 2022/23 council tax period.
5. Please confirm if an assessment of vulnerability is done prior to a debt being passed to an enforcement company and if so provide a brief description of what the assessment involves. Please also confirm how many cases of people assessed as being vulnerable or potentially vulnerable were passed on to an enforcement company for the 2022/23 council tax period.
6. Please confirm what protocols are in place between the local authority and enforcement companies regarding the approach that should be taken when someone is assessed as being vulnerable as per the assessment referred to in Q5. Please also confirm the kinds of cases which should be raised with, or referred back to, local authorities for further consideration when encountered.
7. Please confirm:
A) how many requests the council received to bring a council tax debt back from an enforcement agent due to vulnerability reasons during the 2022/23 period and
B) How many times the council agreed to bring an account back due to vulnerability reasons during the 2022/23 period.
Response
1. In relation to your collection of council tax for the 2022/2023 council tax period please provide the total number of referrals/debts passed to enforcement agents.
2. Please confirm the name of the enforcement company used by the council for the recovery of council tax debt.
3. Please confirm if accounts which are part of the council tax reduction/support scheme are passed to enforcement companies and if so how many such cases were passed on for the 2022/23 council tax period.
4. Please confirm if accounts of people on health/disability related benefits such as Disability Living Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Personal Independence Payment are passed to enforcement companies and if so how many such cases were passed on for the 2022/23 council tax period.
5. Please confirm if an assessment of vulnerability is done prior to a debt being passed to an enforcement company and if so provide a brief description of what the assessment involves. Please also confirm how many cases of people assessed as being vulnerable or potentially vulnerable were passed on to an enforcement company for the 2022/23 council tax period.
6. Please confirm what protocols are in place between the local authority and enforcement companies regarding the approach that should be taken when someone is assessed as being vulnerable as per the assessment referred to in Q5. Please also confirm the kinds of cases which should be raised with, or referred back to, local authorities for further consideration when encountered.
7. Please confirm:
A) how many requests the council received to bring a council tax debt back from an enforcement agent due to vulnerability reasons during the 2022/23 period and
B) How many times the council agreed to bring an account back due to vulnerability reasons during the 2022/23 period.
Regarding questions 3, 4, 5 and 7 this information is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Electronic reporting systems are unable to run a report for this information. To ascertain the data requested officers would need to manually check all case files that were passed to enforcement agents to then breakdown the specific data that has been requested.
An initial search has shown that 2,221 case files would need to be checked for this information in this way, and it is estimated that it would take approximately 3 minutes to check each file.
This would at a conservative estimate take at least 111 hours to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
Within the scope of 18 hours we would be able to provide a response to questions 1, 2 and 6. Please let me know if you would like us to continue to collate this information for you.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.