Council Tax Arrears See Thousands In Court

Hundreds of thousands of people could already have been taken to court for failing to pay council tax following benefit changes, Labour has claimed.

Figures obtained by the party found 112 English councils had issued more than 156,000 court summonses since April, according to reports.

Shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn said: "David Cameron boasts about keeping council tax down, but last April he deliberately imposed a council tax increase on people on the lowest incomes, including hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers.

"That's why hundreds of thousands are now facing court summonses. The Prime Minister needs to wake up to what's going on."

Labour made Freedom of Information requests to all 326 councils in England to ask how many people have been paying council tax for the first time or paying increased council tax since April, when the changes were introduced.

The party then asked how many of the people in this group have received courts summons. Just over a third of the councils, 112, reported that a total of 156,563 people in this group had been summonsed to court.

Labour calculates that 455,710 people would have been found to have received summonses had all 326 councils replied.

Robert Oxley, from the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Council tax is a big burden on people's budgets these days.

"Everyone is struggling with rising prices, whether it's in their energy bills, their food bills or their council tax.

"The biggest thing that local residents can do at the moment is urge their councillors to adopt a council tax freeze, or a council tax cut, in the future."

But local government minister Brandon Lewis said Labour's survey was misleading and "contradicted" by official statistics.

He said: "This shoddy survey is contradicted by official statistics, which show arrears have fallen in the last year and the council tax collected has increased."

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