Islanders taken to court for not paying council tax will have to pay up to £128.50 in increased administration fees from next year.
The Isle of Wight council’s director of corporate services, Sharon Betts, yesterday (Monday) decided to increase 2025/26 fees for Summons and Liability Orders to £91.50 and £37 respectively.
Magistrates applications only cost IWC 50p
This is despite local councils only having to pay a fee of 50p for Liability Order applications to Magistrates’ Courts, according to the housing charity Shelter.
Charges in 2024/25 were £90.50 for a Summons and £34 for a Liability Order.
Court Summons are issued to bring people to court after they have failed to pay council tax after being given reminders.
Used to collect unpaid Council Tax
Local authorities apply for Liability Orders to help them collect unpaid Council Tax using enforcement agents and benefit or earnings deductions.
In documents explaining the decision, the council said,
“As part of the Corporate Plan, the administration aspires to keep the Isle of Wight Council solvent and take all the measures it can to improve the financial position of the council, and to ensure the council’s expenditure is ultimately no greater than its expected income.
“Reviewing the liability order costs on an annual basis ensures the council is recouping the amount it is spending on the administration of liability orders, and not being in a deficit position.
“The individual costs which together form the administration fees are reviewed with finance colleagues to ensure accurate charges are included within the overall cost.
“The alternative to increasing the administration fee is to leave them unchanged however this is not a recommended course of action as the service will be in a deficit position with regards to recovering costs attributable to the obtaining of liability orders.
“This would impact on council taxpayers across the board, as the costs would not be fully covered.”
Unpaid council tax
The total amount of unpaid council tax across the country reached £6 billion as of March 2024, according to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
This represents a £504 million increase since the end of 2022-23.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
