We are in a time when the problems with the economy are causing a lot of people financial problems. One potential problem is the forecasted huge increases in taxes in order to pay for the bank bailouts and the money being borrowed to deal with the recession.
So Brown and New Labour are planning ahead!
They are proposing to increase bailiff and court charges for people who run into financial difficulties.
The cost of a debtor being summoned to discuss their finances is proposed to be increased from £30 to £10
If baillifs go to an address they they will charge £100 not £35. What happens if they attend several times? Maybe the person that they want to speak to is not in. Could someone end up owing hundreds of pounds simply because a bailiff visits three or four times?
The government talk about concessions for poor people, apparantly only the rich need to pay the charges. I bet you that the bailiffs will charge everybody each time they visit and will take goods if they can’t get money!
When a person goes bankrupt and owes lots of money then I suppose that it may not matter too much if their debt is increased by a few hundred pounds.
But most people who attend court, especially if it is for non-payment of council tax, will have their problems compounded by massive increases in the debt that they owe. A £100 council tax charge may suddenly become £500 plus making it absolutely impossible for these people, generally on low incomes, to sort out their problems!
Because of it’s link with council tax debt, this is a basically a savage tax on poorer people which will seriously impact their lives.
Talk about a cynical prime minister; Brown is already planning these savage tax increases even though he knows that council tax in particular is probably going to be significantly increased in the near future. Perhaps Labour believe that these additional charges will make people put every effort into paying their bills but what about those poorer families (and there are many more of them now!) who simply do not have the money!
added later
And just in case anyone thinks that I am being unfair to this government, the following is a promise from Gordon Brown last November. He said
I want every household facing difficulty at this time to know we are ready to help and are on their side.
