The new policy will see the use of bailiffs to collect unpaid bills brought to an end for those in receipt of Council Tax support and significantly reduced generally.
The revised service will also re-focus its way of working to get to the root of the issues of residents' non-payment of Council Tax.
If approved by the Council's Executive today (Tuesday, June 16), the authority will become one of the first in the country to adopt the Money Advice Trust's Stop the Knock policy, but takes the initiative much further including helping people back into work.
The authority's Revenues and Benefits service is to remodel itself with a renewed focus on working for residents as opposed to being a "transactional" operation.
This will see Middlesbrough residents receiving:-
- Benefit entitlement reviews
- Help with shortfalls in rent
- Emergency financial assistance
- Consolidated debt solutions
In addition, customers who opt into using the help available and "self-help" could have the levels of their debts and charges reduced.
Cllr Chris Hobson, Middlesbrough Council's Executive Member for Finance and Governance, said: "Our Revenue and Benefits service are leading the way across the entire nation in putting a new approach in place to helping people, not just with Council Tax bills but with all financial issues.
"This approach will hopefully allow us to help people to stop themselves falling into serious debts and hardship.
"The use of bailiff is problematic for a number of reasons - and while it can be useful as a last resort, it should be exactly that and not a de facto approach."
As with local authorities up and down the country Middlesbrough Council has seen its Council Tax collection rates reduce in recent years.
The proposal for the new approach is cost neutral; the costs associated with the internal recovery of the debt will be funded through retaining enforcement fees, which are currently paid to the external agents. There will be no additional cost to the Council.
For those customers that take positive steps to ‘self-help', costs currently charged of £75 will be halved with the flexibility to remove all costs if appropriate steps are taken to access initiatives such as ‘routes to work'.
The Money Advice Trust's Stop The Knock campaign asks local authorities to adopt six pledges which are to commit to reduce the role of bailiffs, review signposting to free debt advice, adopt the Standard Financial Statement to objectively assess affordability, put in place a formal policy for vulnerable residents, exempt Council Tax Support recipients from bailiffs and sign the Council Tax protocol and review current practice.
