No binding standards for government's own debt collection

Government and councils are consistently found to be the harshest creditors. The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 make a full year's bill payable after one missed instalment. Councils passed 1.69 million debts to bailiffs in 2024-25, up 14 per cent, and half of Money Advice Trust clients with council tax arrears went without food to pay. DWP recovers overpayments by automatic benefit deductions, and the NAO found 81 per cent of DWP overpayment debt over 180 days old. The Cabinet Office Fairness Group and the Debt Fairness Charter are voluntary. The June 2025 council tax consultation response is still pending, and the Enforcement Conduct Board remains non-statutory despite the MoJ's 2025 consultation; only fee reforms took effect in May 2026.

Public-sector collection practices would be illegal for FCA-regulated lenders. Aggressive state collection deepens hardship, pushes people towards illegal lenders, and undermines government credibility when it demands fairness from private creditors. Affordability-based collection also recovers more.

A package: amend the 1992 council tax regulations to require graduated escalation and affordability checks before bailiff referral, put enforcement-agent licensing on a statutory footing under the Enforcement Conduct Board, and bind HMRC, DWP and councils to cross-government debt management standards with an independent adjudicator.

// State-led: Instrument: amended 1992 council tax regulations plus statutory Enforcement Conduct Board licensing and binding cross-government standards.

The state collects more harshly than a regulated lender could, 1.69 million debts went to bailiffs, and the council-tax consultation response is pending now.