£20.6m council tax debt

OLDHAMERS owe £20.6million in unpaid council tax — equivalent to an average of £218 per household — according to new research by the National Debtline.

This is up from £17.5million the previous year, placing Oldham as fifth worst in the country for council tax arrears in 2014/15.

A total of 432 calls for help with debt were made from the Oldham area to National Debtline last year with residents receiving free advice on how to resolve financial difficulties.

Councillor Abdul Jabbar, Oldham Council’s Cabinet member for finance and HR, said: “We have a statutory duty to collect all debts and we take non-payment extremely seriously.

“However, Oldham — like all the other areas with lower collection rates — has a high level of deprivation and we must strike a balance to recover money from those who have little cash by trying to help them.”

According to National Debtline, council tax is now the fastest growing type of debt problem it is helping clients to resolve with 24 per cent of all callers now in arrears, up from 14 per cent in 2007.

Salford and Manchester are among the worst local authorities in the country when it comes to collecting council tax.

In Manchester, there was £12.3million outstanding (they collected 91.8 per cent of £146.7million) with a further £7.9million due in Salford (they collected 91.6 per cent of £93.7million).

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