SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

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It Pays to Pay - improving council tax collection in Scotland

ANNEX B

COSLA PROPOSALS

COSLA made 5 proposals, which it considered would assist Councils in the collection of outstanding debt:

• Allow councils to jointly bill and collect council tax with rent;
• Decrease the financial limit to that which previously applied in respect of the use of sequestration procedures;
• Grant councils the right to refuse to sell council housing to tenants where they have outstanding council tax or community charge arrears;
• Grant councils access to Inland Revenue data in cases where it has not been possible for authorities to find out employment details of a community charge/council tax debtor by other means;

• Introduce legislation which would allow the Department of Social Security to make a direct deduction from benefit arrangement with councils to pay off community charge/council tax debts without having to go through the summary warrant procedure.

All of these proposals raised difficult questions as they straddled different enforcement procedures; bankruptcy and housing policy; data protection and Inland Revenue policy, and the interaction between council tax and DSS benefits legislation

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