SNP and Liberals on Edinburgh City Council Adopt Vicious Postcode Based Harassment Policy
1) Notice from Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, 10th August 2008:
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty
Important meeting tues 12 August
7.30pm at ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place EH7 5HA
All very welcome
We will be discussing what appears to be a major attack on people in arrears with Council Tax, by Edinburgh City Council and sheriff officers Scott and Co.
Within the last fortnight people have contacted Edinburgh Claimants who have been subjected to outrageous treatment, including:
- A young man threatened by sheriff officers at his door that unless he paid them around 189 pounds in cash immediately, then they could come in and take his possessions. What's more, they threatened, if you try to stop us, we will call the police and you could be arrested (this of course was a lie, sheriffs only have power to force entry to your home after a special court hearing has granted a special attachment order). Terrified, the young man and his girlfriend paid the money on the doorstep in cash, leaving themselves penniless, with no money even to buy food for their baby.
- People who have been paying their current Council Tax, and also paying a regular sum every month to council tax arrears, as an agreed payment plan with Scott and co, suddenly facing a demand to drastically increase their payments. When they provided evidence that this was impossible, some of them have been threatened with sequestration and the loss of their home.
We have discovered that Edinburgh City Council have adopted a new recovery plan for council tax arrears. This involves them branding an unknown but seemingly large number of people - probably thousands of people - as "can pay, wont pays" and then aiming to force these people to pay off their arrears within 12 months. Since many people have alleged debts of thousands of pounds, this is impossible for people to do. This policy was adopted at a council meeting back in January - we are investigating further.
We need to urgently publicise what people can do to resist these attacks, and discuss the most effective measures and actions we can take.
Ideas could include
- making new posters and mass flyposting them
- producing updated debt leaflets and distributing them
- organising an action at the council or sheriff officers premises, along with media publicity
- trying to get sympathetic coverage in the mainstream media
- discussing the possibility of an organised council tax non-payment movement, like the anti poll tax movement
Hope you can make this important meeting, please tell any friends you think might be interested.
* Edinburgh Claimants and ECAP hold weekly advice and solidarity sessions at ACE every tuesday 1-4pm
Drop in or phone 0131 557 6242 www.edinburghclaimants.org
2) Is This Real? What did the Edinburgh City Councillors formally decide?
Yes it is real and official. The ruling SNP/Liberal councillors really have deliberately enacted a policy every bit as bad as Edinburgh Claimants clients are experiencing.
Here's the exact quote from the minutes of Edinburgh City Council Finance and Resources Committee of 29th January 2008:
9 Debt Recovery Policy
Proposals were brought forward to deal with difficult to collect Council Tax Debt. It was intended to use the lessons learned from Council Tax to develop a comprehensive Corporate Debt Recovery Policy which would seek to maximise collection of all types of Council debt.
Decision
To approve the recovery policy outlined in paragraphs 3.2.1 -3.2.3 of the report by the Director of Finance for customers identified as “can pay - won’t pay”.
To note that further reports would be submitted on proposed recovery policies for other categories of difficult to collect debt during 2008.
To note that a progress report in relation to decision (1) above would be submitted to the Committee in six months time.
That the Director of Finance advise Committee members of the profile of outstanding debts.
(Reference - report no F&R/049/07-08/F by the Director of Finance, submitted.)
The minutes are online at http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocId=107811
3) Postcode Policing Lottery
The report by the Director of Finance referred to above was given to every Councillor at the meeting (whether or not they bothered to read it is a different question). It is online in full at http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocId=107049, but the money quotes are reproduced below.
The report states bluntly that they will arbitrarily decide claimants can pay solely on the basis of their postcodes – for all the world as if poor people never rent rooms close to good areas, or that middle class and skilled working class families cannot go down on their luck from time to time, or that there is no credit crunch and economic downturn affecting particularly those areas.
That the councillors voted to accept this is frankly shocking.
Scotland's other big local authority, Glasgow City Council, is no friend to poor council tax payers in arrears, but has never adopted any type of semi random postcode policing approach like this.
The report says:
3.1.4 Since then, in conjunction with Experian, the Credit Reference agency, a high level analysis of all Council Tax debt linked to most likely to pay post codes has been carried out and this indicates that there is approximately £9.25 million worth of debt (2673 customer accounts) associated with what could be described as the “can pay won’t pay” category. It should be emphasised that this is total debt outstanding for all years for those customers and needs to be considered in the context of annual tax billing of f273 million.
3.1.5 It is proposed to initially concentrate on these accounts and after 6 months a progress report will be submitted to the Finance and Resources Committee before progressing to the next “level” of difficult to collect customers.
3.2 Revised Debt Recovery Policy in relation to “can pay -won’t pay customers”
3.2.1 It is proposed that the recovery policy in relation to the above category of customers shall be as follows:-
Previous years debt –
Less than £500 – to be cleared immediately
More than £500 – current year instalment and a minimum of 1/12th of previous years debt in addition (i.e. old years debt cleared within 12 months.)
Where appropriate an Inhibition may be taken over the customers property to safeguard the Council’s interest. The Inhibition will not change the instalment arrangements.
3.2.2 Where a customer in the identified “can pay - won’t pay” category is not prepared to agree the above arrangements a letter will be issued threatening sequestration and will advise the customer to contact the Debt Team/Sheriff Officers to settle the debt. Existing arrangements for these accounts will be reviewed to ensure they meet the guidelines at 3.2.1 above. Similar action will also be taken where arrangements are not maintained.
3.2.3 The proposed recovery policy is being recommended after examining best practice recovery policies in our peer city group of Councils. Dundee City ,Council have been piloting such a policy over the last couple of years. They have found that only 10% of cases in this category result in full sequestration. The vast majority of customers either settle by lump sum or agree a satisfactory arrangement with the Debt Team/Sheriff Officers. Any such arrangement will take into account the customer’s detailed circumstances and will only be offered where it is clear the arrangement outlined in 3.2.1 above cannot be realistically met.
You can check out the full report online at http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocId=107049.
4) Who's behind this?
We believe in 'naming the names', in letting the public know who the guilty men and women are, to allow for effective direction of campaigning effort and resources.
4.1) Gordon Mackenzie
The Finance and Resources Committee is led (convened) by Councillor Gordon Mackenzie (Liberal Democrat, Prestonfield ward).
He would have been fully briefed on the new policy by Council officials in advance of it being presented to his Finance and Resources committee. And – at least if he was doing his job right, and asking the right questions – he should also have been fully aware of the consequences of the policy change he was pushing through.
Regardless of whether or not his new policy was due to conspiracy or cock up on his part, he is now the single most important individual who has the power to order it changed.
His email: gordon.f.mackenzie@edinburgh.gov.uk
His office phone is: 0131 529 3175
And his surgeries are:
- 1st Wednesday each month at 6.45pm, Royal Commonwealth Pool
- 3rd Wednesday each month at 6.45pm, Cameron House Community Education Centre, Cameron House Avenue
4.2) Nick Elliott-Cannon
Edinburgh City Council administration is a coalition of the Liberal Democrats with the SNP. Of those, the Liberals are the biggest party, but they still have to clear policy decisions such as this with the SNP before they can put them through.
Gordon Mackenzie could not have got his policy through in January without approval of the SNP. The SNP's lead man on Finance and Resources – who the other SNP Councillors would have taken the lead from – is the committees vice-convener, Councillor Nick Elliott-Cannon (SNP, Sighthill/Gorgie Ward).
Again, he either knew what he was doing, or – which is almost as bad – dumbly let Gordon Mackenzie and the Council Officials lead him up the garden path as to what the impact of the new policy would be.
Either way, Nick Elliott-Cannon has the power, through being finance spokesperson within the SNP group, to force Gordon Mackenzie and the Finance and Resources Committee as a whole to moderate their policy.
His email: nick.elliott-cannon@edinburgh.gov.uk
His office phone is: 0131 529 4974
And his surgeries are:
- Stenhouse Primary School 1st Tuesday (during school term) 6:00pm
- Tynecastle High School, 2nd Tuesday (during school term) 6.00pm
- Longstone Primary School 3rd Monday (during school term) 6:30pm
- Sighthill Community Centre 4th Monday 6:00pm
- Wester Hailes Library 4th Wednesday 6:00pm
4.3) The Other Councillors
The other councillors on the Finance and Resources Committee may not have grasped the full consequences of what they voted through. Some of them – especially the opposition councillors – may be happy to raise concerns. Others will take some public lobbying to do the right thing.
The fourteen councillors at the 29th January 2008 Finance and Resources Committee meeting, who actually voted the policy through were: Gordon Mackenzie (see above), Nick Elliott-Cannon (see above), Aldridge, Buchanan, Chapman, Child, Jenny Dawe, Kate MacKenzie, McKay, Munn, Ian Perry, Rose, Wheeler and Wilson. Not present then, but a member of that committee now, is Councillor Murray.
Most important of all those is Jenny Dawe, the Liberal Democrat leader of the Council. She was at the meeting in January that voted this through, and as leader of the council has overall power over everything the council does, including this. In particular, as the leader of his party, she has the power to overrule Gordon Mackenzie or even arrange for his dismissal from his convenership post.
And her counterpart from the SNP other half of the administration also wields great power over policy decisions such as this. Councillor Steve Cardownie is leader of the SNP group and deputy leader of the Council. He is also a member of the Finance and Resources Committee, but was not present at its January meeting. Again, he has the power to overrule or even dismiss Nick Elliott-Cannon.
And national Liberal and SNP politicians can bring pressure to bear on their councillors in Edinburgh, and recently did so over the proposed school closures.
The perverse aspect to all this is that it is the SNP and the Liberal Democrats which are the mainstream political parties which are opposed to the Council Tax. They both have made it an issue in recent elections, saying that it is unfair, and that it should be replaced with a local income tax better related to ability to pay.
5) What can victims of this policy do?
If you are on benefits, you can arrange to have a small sum deducted direct from benefits by Edinburgh City Council to pay for those parts of the council tax – the water and sewerage elements – that you still have to pay. You should not, ever, have to pay more than £12 per month under those circumstances, even if you have arrears built up. You should refuse to agree to any higher payment scheme if you are on benefits.
If you have other debts, and/or you are on a low income – that is, your income is less than or is close to your necessary outgoings – then you should also be given a low repayment rate. Again, a few pounds per week is reasonable. To organise this, you will need the services of a debt or money advice agency. They will draw up an income/expenditure sheet for you and present that to all your creditors, including the Council/Sheriff Officers. Those creditors won't like it, but they will have to accept that repayment plan from you, because a Sheriff court will not accept more aggressive repayment requests when you are in financial difficulties.
If you do not own your home or other property, and you are not young and so do not expect to want to get a mortgage at any time, then LILA (low income, low assets) bankruptcy is worthwhile. That will permanently wipe out all your debts, for a cost of just £100 and the completion of a simple form. The downside is that future credit, including mortgages, will be difficult/impossible for you to obtain. Full details at http://www.aib.gov.uk/MainNav/Services/Legislation/accesstobankruptcy/Debtorsapplication
"Don't be intimidated by sheriff officer bullies" - Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty are organising opposition to the Council's clampdown - read about this at http://scotland.indymedia.org/node/11126
