Council Tax Arrears
Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
The Birkenhead News reported:-
"Wirral Council’s data indicates that 101,531 accounts have had some degree of recovery or enforcement measures placed against them. A further 261,886 accounts have an outstanding balance that has not as of yet been subject to enforcement action"
This totals 363,417 accounts in some sort of arrears yet the total number of properties subject to Council Tax is in the region of 150,000.
Q1 I suspect the terminology may have some cause of this apparent anomaly, could you clarify the relationship between an "account" and a "property subject to council tax" and any other relevant explanation please.
Q2 Could you also provide the following data:-
Q2a The number of accounts in arrears and the total number of accounts for each of the last five year.
Q2b The number of accounts in arrears by Council Tax band and the total number of of accounts per band for each of the last five years.
Q2c The numbers of accounts in arrears by the quartiles of the amount owing for each of the last five years. If this is too difficult to produce then any guide of the distribution against amount owing would appreciated, conversely if it is easy to produce then a finer breakdown (eg to deciles) would be even more appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Craine
Dear Mr Craine
Thank you for your enquiry. Our response is below.
Q1 I suspect the terminology may have some cause of this apparent anomaly,
could you clarify the relationship between an "account" and a "property
subject to council tax" and any other relevant explanation please.
An account is created when someone is made liable for Council Tax at a
property which is subject to Council Tax. When an account is closed
because someone is no longer liable at the address, if a balance remains
outstanding then the account is still counted for reporting purposes for
that financial year.
A bill or demand is raised against each account for each financial year,
or part of a year, that someone is liable for. If an outstanding balance
remains at the end of the financial year, then the account, and the bill,
is counted for reporting purposes.
Q2 Could you also provide the following data:-
Q2a The number of accounts in arrears and the total number of accounts for
each of the last five year.
An account is only deemed to be in arrears once a payment has been missed.
As of 31.03.2024:
No. of accounts No of accounts in arrears No.
of accounts with recovery
2023/24 154,632
15,249 11,405
2022/23 38,442
23,831 14,611
2021/22 38,811
22,515 16,296
2020/21 29,488
16,878 12,610
2019/20 32,419
17,847 14,572
Q2b The number of accounts in arrears by Council Tax band and the total
number of of accounts per band for each of the last five years.
We do not record the number of Council Tax accounts by Council Tax band,
or the number of Council Tax accounts in arrears by Council Tax band. Only
the number of accounts for each financial year with outstanding balances
are recorded – see response to Q2a.
Q2c The numbers of accounts in arrears by the quartiles of the amount
owing for each of the last five years. If this is too difficult to
produce then any guide of the distribution against amount owing would
appreciated, conversely if it is easy to produce then a finer breakdown
(eg to deciles) would be even more appreciated.
Unfortunately, we are unable to assist you with this enquiry. We do not
record a detailed breakdown of the number of accounts in arrears by the
amounts owing.
End of financial year data only records the totals based on the number of
bills for each account, for each financial year, with outstanding
balances.
As of 31.03.2024
No. of bills with a debit balance Amount outstanding
2023/24 21,102
£13,768,360.76
2022/23
14,924 £8,599,650.60
2021/22
12,722 £7,194,439.64
2020/21
9,421 £5,826,872.54
2019/20
9,425 £4,998,441.54
Yours sincerely
Lynette Paterson
Principal Information Management Officer
Law and Corporate Services
Wirral Council
PO Box 290
Brighton Street
Wallasey
CH27 9FQ
Email: [1][Wirral Borough Council request email]
Visit our website: [2]www.wirral.gov.uk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[wirral%20borough%20council%20request%20email]
2. http://www.wirral.gov.uk/
Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
Thank you for your reply however your response to Q2a clearly has mistakes in the "No. of accounts" , the number of accounts didn't suddenly increase fourfold between 2022/23 and 2023/24
I struggle to believe at Q2b you don't have figures for the number of accounts in each tax band or perhaps I articulated the question incorrectly? If you don't hold that figure can you provide the number of taxable properties in each tax band for each year of the last five years.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Craine
Dear Mr Craine
In response to your email, we can provide the following clarification to
assist you.
Clarification of figures used in response to Q2a:
As the information provided was as of 31/03/2024, only the figures for the
financial year 2023/24 show all accounts, including accounts which do not
have an outstanding balance owed.
For the previous years, the figures only show accounts with an outstanding
balance as of 31/03/2024, the number of those accounts which were in
arrears on that date, and the number of those accounts that had some
degree of recovery or enforcement measures placed against them.
For clarity, an account is only deemed to be in arrears once a payment has
been missed. The number of accounts for 2023/24 is higher than the number
of properties subject to Council Tax because the figure includes
properties where more than one person has been made liable within that
financial year, so more than one account exists against that property.
Clarification of response to Q2b:
If an outstanding balance remains at the end of the financial year, the
total outstanding balance is reported.
The methods in which Council Tax can be recovered do not differ depending
on the Band of a property and so this is immaterial and therefore, not
collected for reporting purposes.
Response to further question:
Please find below the number of taxable properties in each band for each
of the last five years.
Band A Band B Band C Band D Band E
Band F Band G Band H Total
2023/24 60751 32950 27679 13603 8466 4373
3201 281 151304
2022/23 60645 32815 27602 13503 8414 4363
3191 278 150811
2021/22 60451 32655 27560 13448 8334 4338
3169 274 150229
2020/21 60197 32538 27479 13419 8260 4293
3147 271 149604
2019/20 59875 32441 27454 13383 8225 4286
3134 269 149067
We hope that this provides you with further understanding.
Yours sincerely
Lynette Paterson
Principal Information Management Officer
Law and Corporate Services
Wirral Council
PO Box 290
Brighton Street
Wallasey
CH27 9FQ
Email: [1][email address]
Visit our website: [2]www.wirral.gov.uk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email%20address]
2. http://www.wirral.gov.uk/
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now