Calling on the Scottish Government to bring in emergency legislation to abolish enforcement of council tax debts immediately.

People are living in fear of sheriff officers enforcing diligences such as wage arrestment, bank arrestment, benefit deductions or if they are a home owner, sequestration.

People are loosing their jobs and homes due to the harsh enforcement regime which is unlike any other debt collection.

Not only is the current system outdated and unfair, the aggressive enforcement destroys lives, exacerbates mental health issues and pushes children and families into poverty. 

There have been calls from charities across Scotland to reform council tax as it is unfair, regressive and penalises people already struggling financially by demanding payment of a full years tax in advance if one months payment is missed.

The Scottish Government has failed to address issued raised and local authorities are showing a blatant disregard by increasing council tax whilst removing their legal obligation to issue final demands before enforcement procedures commence.

Today the UK government announced that they will hold a consultation on council tax debt enforcement. This is not enough. We need an amnesty on council tax debt  now to protect the people of Scotland.