Liverpool City Council has written off Council Tax payments worth £51,297,000 over recent years.
Delegated Authority reports seen by the ECHO have revealed that the local authority has written off tens of millions of pounds in council tax bills.
The documents reveal that the council wrote off £51,297,000 over a 20 month period between January 2018 and September 2019. However some of the payments are outside of this time frame.
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A report from September 2019 reveals a write off worth £5.9m.
A report from January 2019 reveals a write off worth £2.085m.
A report from January 2018 reveals a write off worth £16.7m.
A fourth report from May 2018 reveals a write off worth £26.5m.
However £16.5m of that debt concerned Council Tax from 1993 and 1997 which had not been paid.
The reports seen by the ECHO list the different reasons for the non-collection of the tax.
The first reason given concerns the Council Tax accounts sent to enforcement agents who have been unable to recover the debt.
The second reason concerned accounts that had been closed for three years where there was no forwarding address for the customer.
The third concerned customers who had been insolvent by a court.
The fourth concerned customers who were deemed to be vulnerable. The fifth factor related to customers whose accounts closed for more than six years without payment.
The sixth factor concerned deceased customers. The final reason for non-collection concerned accounts where the outstanding balance owed was under £140.
The council is set to bring in the maximum increase in Council Tax from April - which is an overall rise of 2.99% on what Liverpool taxpayers currently pay.
This is made up of a 1.99% increase for general use and a ringfenced 1% rise to be spent only on the authority's struggling adult social care services.
Council Tax, a vital source of revenue for the city, has long been a source of friction with the government.
In 2014 Brandon Lewis, then the parliamentary under-secretary of state for communities and local government, wrote to the council warning them that they had the worse Council Tax arrears in the country.
Mr Lewis said the council's arrears at the time were the equivalent to £528 per dwelling.
The confrontation was sparked after then Walton MP Steve Rotheram asked Mr Lewis if he had read an ECHO article about the impact of government austerity measures on the city.
Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, Cllr Jane Corbett, said: “Every Council looks at the historic debt it holds on its books, periodically. The debt write offs highlighted here were the first carried out by the council for quite a period with some of the debt dating all the way back to 1993. Some related to Business Rates and some to Council Tax.
“Debt is only ever written off after extensive and repeated efforts have been made by the Council to recover what is owed. The debt related to people and businesses who were made bankrupt, sadly passed away or where the outstanding amount was smaller than the cost of recovery.
“Assessing and deciding on the historic debt then helps us focus on chasing debt that is recoverable. This is exactly what we are doing as every pound collected is a pound we can use for our frontline services that the people of our city rely on.”
Richard Kemp, leader of the city's Liberal Democrats, said: "We raised the issue of uncollected council tax, which is near the highest level in England, in the Council's budget debate last week. The level is absolutely unacceptable given that Liverpool has one of the highest levels of council tax support for those in financial need which is, of course, subsidised by every other council taxpayer.
"Of course we need to protect those that cannot pay but now we are clearly not making action against those that can pay but won't. Every one pound lost to none payment is a cut in the services that we can provide. Liverpool council needs to sort this out as a matter of urgency."
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