Quantcast
Menu

News

One-in-eight have missed council tax payments

Adam Williams
Written By:
Adam Williams
Posted:
Updated:
20/03/2015

Some one-in-eight homeowners and renters have missed at least one council tax payment in the last year.

Figures from the Debt Advisory Centre found 13% had missed a payment in the past 12 months. Of these, 33% had missed just one payment but 12% had missed five or more.

With high rents across much of the country, younger people were most likely to miss a payment. Of those aged between 25 and 34 more than a quarter (26%) admitted they had missed a payment.

In London, where property costs are highest, nearly a fifth of people across all age groups had missed a council tax payment in the last year.

There were misconceptions about how missing council tax could affect them in future. A tenth of people didn’t know missing a payment would damage their credit score – making it difficult for them to obtain a mortgage in future.

Just a quarter of those who have missed a payment knew that a prison sentence was a possible punishment.

Ian Williams, spokesman for Debt Advisory Centre, said: “Many people who are struggling financially don’t realise that their council tax should be treated as a priority debt and paid before any money is allocated to unsecured lenders such as credit card and loan repayments.

“A debt advisor will work with their clients to ensure that key bills, such as council tax, rent or mortgage, food, utilities and transport are paid first, and only then will any surplus funds be allocated to unsecured creditors.”


Share: