A leading councillor has hailed a trial scheme to deduct council tax directly from earnings as a way to target people who ignore reminder letters and refuse to pay.
Rupert Turpin, portfolio holder for business management at Medway Council said there was a duty to make sure everyone who is supposed to pay does so.
Medway is one of 29 local authorities taking part in a trial launched by HM Revenue and Customs in July which uses the debt information sharing powers introduced by the Digital Economy Act 2017.
It allows councils to obtain employer and income information from HMRC for people who have failed to pay their council tax and have an order to pay from a magistrates’ court.
Residents who are employed or have an income are contacted to and asked to start paying off their debts and warned that otherwise they will have their debt deducted directly from their earnings through their employer.
Cllr Turpin said: 'The majority of Medway residents pay their council tax on time each month which helps pay for services for residents across Medway.
'The pilot scheme targets the minority of people who continue to ignore our reminder letters and refuse to pay.
'We have a duty to all council tax payers to make sure everyone who is required to pay does so.'
