In Focus Collections
By the end of the enforcement period the
60-day breathing space will have expired and the debt will have grown exponentially. Even if a repayment plan is agreed, the
There is no standard procedure employed by the 350 local authorities to recover debt, so the best option is to apply a breathing space at the point that an individual defaults on a payment, before the enforcement action is instructed
If you do not pay a Penalty Charge Notice
within 28 days, you are issued with a ‘charge certificate’ and have 14 days to pay the original fine plus a 50% surcharge. Failure to pay within a further 14 days leads to a court order demanding payment. That takes you 42 days into the breathing space and according to the law, enforcement action can begin to recover the debt. This also incurs additional fixed fees.
December 2018
debt management plan has become harder to manage than at the time of the original fine. In exploring the conflict between the
breathing space proposal and the judicial process it is clear how the recovery of public debt is a long and complex procedure that affords plenty of opportunities to reach a payment agreement without the need for enforcement action to be suspended.
Extended period The legislation suggests that a local authority can recover an overdue Council Tax bill within 55 days. The reality is that a local authority must issue demand notices, reminder notices, court hearings and notices of enforcement in accordance with a statutory timetable, while allowing the requisite period of time to elapse between stages. In practice, this extends the collection period to around 96 days and there is an
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additional 41 days minimum for enforcement action to be completed. In cases where someone is financially
vulnerable and has no means to repay a debt, local authorities will often agree to write off the debt. In order for this measure to be approved, however, every enforcement remedy must have been considered or attempted. The addition of a breathing space in the process could delay this measure and effectively work against a quick resolution for someone in problem debt. The question for the Treasury, therefore,
is not whether we should have a breathing space for unpaid public debt, but at which stage of the recovery process it should be available? There is no standard procedure employed by the 350 local authorities to recover debt, so the best option is to apply a breathing space at the point that an individual defaults on a payment, before the enforcement action is instructed. This would standardise the point at which
all local authorities would offer a breathing space and the judicial powers by which certificated enforcement agents are instructed would not be compromised. CCR
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