I read in the Metro this morning that our wonderful city council have managed not to collect £6.1m in council tax bills.

So I would assume that this debt will be spread out between the rest of us that actually can be bothered to pay our dues next year. This will no doubt once again go towards maintaning the wonderful road surfaces and Listed Buildings that Sheffield is world famous for !!

If they spent as much money chasing the none payers rather than people that are a month late with their payments, maybe we wouldn't have to drive around on knackered roads and watch whilst 200 year old buildings are raised to the ground to make way for "new shopping experiences"

Originally posted by RazorSHarp
I read in the Metro this morning that our wonderful city council have managed not to collect £6.1m in council tax bills.

So I would assume that this debt will be spread out between the rest of us that actually can be bothered to pay our dues next year. This will no doubt once again go towards maintaning the wonderful road surfaces and Listed Buildings that Sheffield is world famous for !!

TOO RIGHT......****** pothole took of my exhaust last night.....I am now to sue the Council for £6.1M in protest!!!!

It does seem a bit unfair, especially when the rest of us pay it.

I remember years back when I first bought my house I missed a few payments thinking I'd set up a direct debit, I got a red letter and a warning that I'd be taken to court. I apologised and paid and haven't missed one since, so if they enforce it so quickly how do they miss collecting £6million?

And another question, how do you get on this list that they don't collect from? :D

I'm fairly new to Sheffield and one of the thinks that has struck me when coming here was the state of the roads, I have to commute along ecclesall road south every morning and its like weaving around a patchwork quilt!
I would have thought a City council would have at least enough money to maintain its roads!

Even the new surface they laid on bocking lane/greenhill avenue was balls up because they forgot to put in storms drains!

Sheffield roads are such a sore point with alot of people. I feel like im playing dodge the pot hole too! Im sure it wrecking my suspension!

Why cant the council get there ass into gear, its not as if Council Tax is a new thing!!! We soon got warning letters when it had been forgot to be paid, but how come so many house got away without paying it?

Oh it's dead easy how they missed it; they're too busy harassing and pursuing people who have paid because they get a buzz out of wasting public money

I wonder if Sheffield was privately run ...... would the roads be such a mess and how quickly would they get rid of undiserables and yobs from the streets? Also lets look at other threads on here :-

-Would they waste money on sprucing up decade old flats?
-Would they demolish listed buildings, or sell them off?
-Would David Blunkett have a job? (easy one to answer)
-Would Hillsborough corner be allowed to look like Beruit?


- WOULD THEY HAVE £6M OF UNCOLLECTED COUNCIL TAX?


And so on.....

Someone should start a poll "Sheffield for privatisation?"

I would expect (and this is just an educated guess) that it is simply money they have not received yet but are chasing up and will receive eventually. Really the headline shoud read that the £6 million is unpaid.

Council tax is one thing you cannot hide or run away from. As some of you have said, you soon got warning letters when you didn't pay - but I'm sure lots of people out there require more chasing than a threatening letter.

I'm not so sure.

A guy my mate works with claims to have done 7 days locked up instead of paying his council tax and he owed two years worth.

He reckons that doing the 7 days got the lot written off.

I know it's not the best thing going to prison and I certainly wouldn't do it that way, but if what he's saying is correct, then there may be others opting for this method. Pay nothing for 2 years, have 7 days inconvience and then return to life for another 2 years council tax free.

Originally posted by miraclemaxx
I'm fairly new to Sheffield and one of the thinks that has struck me when coming here was the state of the roads, I have to commute along ecclesall road south every morning and its like weaving around a patchwork quilt!
I would have thought a City council would have at least enough money to maintain its roads!

Even the new surface they laid on bocking lane/greenhill avenue was balls up because they forgot to put in storms drains!

I have travelled around the country a lot Sheffield roads are some of the worst I have driven on the problem in Sheffield is the council have the priorities totally wrong spending money on silly projects.

Originally posted by d71146
I have travelled around the country a lot Sheffield roads are some of the worst I have driven on the problem in Sheffield is the council have the priorities totally wrong spending money on silly projects. I agree. I have done a lot of travelling in the UK in the last couple of years and so far Sheffield roads are definatly the worst. There might be the odd place with one or two roads in bad repair, but ours seem to be in majority.

It's annoying in the car because it's causing premature wear which inevitably costs me more money, but on the motorbike it's a danger. There's a road near the town centre that's so badly rippled that when I went round the corner the other day my handlebars were thrown side to side (tankslapper). Luckily I am quite an experienced rider and managed to sort it out, but to new riders or someone with less experience or confidence this could throw them off and cause injury.

I can't believe that the roads have been allowed to be left in the state they are in for so long. The annoying side of it is bad enough, but surely the dangerous side of it is enough to get the council to sort them out?

Originally posted by lalaland
I'm not so sure.

A guy my mate works with claims to have done 7 days locked up instead of paying his council tax and he owed two years worth.

He reckons that doing the 7 days got the lot written off.


The council can still persue payment of the debt.

Originally posted by Andy
The council can still persue payment of the debt. That's what I thought, but he claims they don't seem to bother and I know that once again he's not paying council tax as he sees the 7 days lockup as an easier and cheaper option.

6.1 million pounds owi ng to the council.

That is only the amount that no one can find an excuse for taking off the debt list.

If the Housing department and other council departmentd were private companies they would be in bankruptsy courts.

If more responsibility was placed on the individual property managers to reduce this debt then this figure could be reduced.

It is disusting that the rate paying public of Sheffield have to put up with such incompetency by those responsible for rent arrears.

Originally posted by lalaland
I'm not so sure.

A guy my mate works with claims to have done 7 days locked up instead of paying his council tax and he owed two years worth.

He reckons that doing the 7 days got the lot written off.

I know it's not the best thing going to prison and I certainly wouldn't do it that way, but if what he's saying is correct, then there may be others opting for this method. Pay nothing for 2 years, have 7 days inconvience and then return to life for another 2 years council tax free.

The point I was trying (not very articulately) to make was that the previous posters were talking as if the council had just not bothered to collect this money and were just letting it go. I was stating that they would be chasing it up. :)

What's the betting that rather than do something to get this money back we just see an increase in tax, for those of us that do pay it?

I'm guessing that collecting council tax is like the trick of balancing plates on sticks. Concentrate your efforts on getting one group of people paying and another group gets away with it. Imagine the debt if nobody was chased for the council tax.

Originally posted by max
I'm guessing that collecting council tax is like the trick of balancing plates on sticks. Concentrate your efforts on getting one group of people paying and another group gets away with it. Imagine the debt if nobody was chased for the council tax.

I would imagine if no one paid and left it to the courts, the bill for prosecuting would be more than the total to be collected.

Now theres an interesting thought.... 100% non payment, would it lead to scrapping the council tax or would Sheffield City council be prepared to foot the debt for mass prosecutions?

Obviously would never happen but definatley food for thought.

Originally posted by RazorSHarp
I would imagine if no one paid and left it to the courts, the bill for prosecuting would be more than the total to be collected.

Now theres an interesting thought.... 100% non payment, would it lead to scrapping the council tax or would Sheffield City council be prepared to foot the debt for mass prosecutions?

Obviously would never happen but definatley food for thought.

mmh what an attractive proposition. Well it wont ever happen because anyone entitled to receive Council Tax Benefit has it automatically paid for them.

This idea would also cause issues too though. Who'd pay for the stuff that council tax pays for?

Someone's gotta pay....

And although we know how much interest John Lewis lost from their cardholder accounts when they outsourced that side of their business, what they are studiously silent about is the true value of the related bad debts.

Originally posted by lalaland
This idea would also cause issues too though. Who'd pay for the stuff that council tax pays for?

Someone's gotta pay....

The real issue is not who pays for it, as most of the money is already spent before it is collected, it is the amount of interest the pre borrowed money attracts as the council have to bridge that gap from elsewhere!!! And that's why our roads are in such a state, the increased interest payments are obviously taken out of the Highways department

Here we go - controversial opinion coming up -

Scrap banded council tax and tax on the householders ability to pay. Not quite like poll tax (which for the younger members meant that if you brought in a wage you paid a full bill yourself, as did everyone else who was earning in the house)

but a means tested rating system. They know how much we earn after all. Its all in the big brother super computer at the inland revenue.

They should do the same sort of thing they do for Working tax credits and Child tax credits. See how much you earn and bill you accordingly.

As with CTC and WTC they see your top line and credit accordingly (most of the time).

Take the top wage earner of each home and calculate on their salary/income.

Lets be honest, Mrs Bloggs aged 79 on a state pension can't pay as much as Mrs Jones aged 79 whose husband left £6 million to the cats home and enough for her to end her days in relative luxury.

Likewise, the average take home for this area is about £250 pw but some take home min. wage and some a heck of a lot more but will live side by side.

Makes sense to me.:bigsmile:

LEE 1979

You say that the council will be chasing this debt up.

What I think every ratepayer would like to know is why now?

Did they have to neglect chasing the bad debt money until it reached an unbelievable 6.1 million pounds.

Those responsible are getting well paid for not doing their job, in private companies the managers would soon be sorted out.

When we were told in the steeworks that we were all going to be finished because they could not stand the losses we were making we had no choice but to accept unemployment.

I do not see any difference in the debt situation, they have allowed the debt to build up year on year and now they find themselves with a problem.

Originally posted by RazorSHarp
I wonder if Sheffield was privately run ...... ...

- WOULD THEY HAVE £6M OF UNCOLLECTED COUNCIL TAX?


And so on.....

Someone should start a poll "Sheffield for privatisation?"

Hate to interupt all the vitriol, but council tax has already been privatised. It is a private company - Liberata - who do all the administration and collection of council tax in Sheffield. Nothing to do with the Council at all.

Originally posted by Shine
Hate to interupt all the vitriol, but council tax has already been privatised. It is a private company - Liberata - who do all the administration and collection of council tax in Sheffield. Nothing to do with the Council at all.

I meant the Council to be privatised not the agency that collecgts the Tax. But if the Tax is collected by a privately run firm, They're not doing very well at it are they?

Originally posted by PopT
Did they have to neglect chasing the bad debt money until it reached an unbelievable 6.1 million pounds.

The 6.1 million is what is left after all the bad debts have been paid.

Imagine, if you will, that in total the council collects £400m of which £300m comes in without a problem. They then set to and chase the remaining £100m and successfully recover £93.9m. The £6.1m is the bit left.

All figures are guestimates of course and I may be well out but that's what happens with bad debts in industry so I shouldn't imagine the council is any different.

Council Tax collection rate for Sheffield is about 96% - which is pretty much the average for a big metropolitan authority. It isn't the case that they don't attempt to collect, but that there is little that they can do if somebody ultimately refuses to pay other than make them bankrupt or apply for committal to prison, neither of which is going to bring in any more money and both of which would have people screaming about the council being heavy-handed. Which do you opt for, financial expedience or social acceptability?