Council tax debts go through the roof
New figures have revealed that the number of people issued summary warrants for council tax has increased by nearly forty percent in the last five years raising serious concerns about Scotland’s cost of living crisis.
A summary warrant is issued by Sheriff Officers at the point that a person has failed to respond to the council’s final notice, and includes a 10 per cent penalty on the original debt. If the debt is not paid off, sheriff officers have powers to get the money from people by arresting earnings, freezing bank accounts, taking money from bank accounts and removing belongings from their home and selling them on.
The grim situation has been highlighted by MSP Jackie Baillie, pictured left, who told The Democrat: “These figures show the failure of both the Scottish and UK Governments to make our economy work for working class people. For too many families in Scotland our economy is fundamentally broken.
“Our economy needs radical change so that it works for us all. It is disgraceful that in 2018 the richest one per cent in Scotland owns more personal wealth than the poorest fifty per cent. There is no time to tinker around the edges, or manage our way out of this crisis. Our economy needs to be transformed so that all can share in the nations’ wealth.”
Source: https://www.aib.gov.uk/policy-development-scottish-diligence-statistics-2016-17-tables
It is not the economy that needs radical change, what we need is a radical redistribution of wealth and power in favour of the working class to attack poverty at its roots. The Council tax is regressive and should be scrapped and replaced with a Scottish Service Tax based on the ability to pay where the rich pay more, and the poorer pay less.