Martin Lewis warns UK households face having to pay 'whole year of council tax' in 'three weeks'

Martin Lewis has warned UK households face having to pay their WHOLE year's worth of Council Tax in just three weeks. The BBC Sounds podcast host took issue with council tax debt recovery on his latest ITV show, and shared a clip to Twitter/X.

Mr Lewis said: "Miss one Council Tax monthly payment and within 3wks they can make you pay for the whole year! My response after listening to a case study who’s finances were wrecked by this." In the clip, Mr Lewis said: "This affects millions of people.

"I want to know why councils think somebody who struggles to pay for their council tax monthly can pay for the entire year in one." Mr Lewis said: "How does that help somebody's finances? It is counterproductive - they are destroying people's long-term financial goals.

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"It's bad for the individual, it's bad for the economy, it's bad for the NHS." Fail to pay your entire council tax bill within a week and your council can apply to take your case to court and ask for a 'liability order' – a letter that lets them take more aggressive forms of debt collection, such as sending in bailiffs.

These orders also come with a charge of as much as £155 for the person in debt, despite them only costing 50p to produce, according to the Ministry of Justice. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "While the collection and enforcement of council tax is the responsibility of councils, we expect local authorities to be proportionate and sympathetic to those in genuine hardship when determining the most appropriate action to collect unpaid tax."

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents 315 councils in England and all 22 unitary authorities in Wales, said: "Councils strive to ensure they have fair council tax collection policies and should always try to work with people who are struggling to meet their council tax bills. We agree that bailiffs should only ever be used as a last resort."