Taken from East Riding News, the newsletter of the East Riding of Yorkshireicon Council:-

Bringing in the bailiffsicon

"The use of bailiffsicon to recover outstanding council tax and business rates is considered to be very much a last resort and only used after the Council has issued reminders, a final notice and applied to the Magistrates Court for a liability order.
In recent years East Riding of Yorkshire Council has appointed Bailiff & Debt Recovery Agents, namely Philips Collection Services Ltd and Jacobs bailiffsicon, to work in partnership with the Council to maintain high levels of recovery. The council and both bailiff companies have invested in cutting edge technology allowing the council’s recovery department to have instant access to all cases on the bailiffs computer systems. It also allows the council to update changes to balances or stop action immediately on appropriate cases.
The cases are passed in an electronic format, which enables the bailiffs to initiate their recovery process much more quickly.
The knock on effect of the work done at the earlier stages of the arrears has meant fewer cases are passed to the bailiff, which prevents bailiff recovery charges being added to the debt.
The bailiff companies themselves have reduced these additional costs added to the cases by allowing the resident to offer a repayment arrangement at most stages of recovery therefore concentrating on residents whom simply ignore requests for payment or alternatively refuse to pay.
Bailiff companies have in recent years introduced numerous payment methods, which offer a more efficient and convenient way to make payment. These include: giro payment cards payable at over 16000 post offices throughout the UK; local authority payment cards payable at all East Riding of Yorkshire Council offices; payment by debit and credit card over the telephone and Philips provide web payment facilities at www.philips.org.uk.
Bailiffs are only used as a last resort when all other requests for payment by the Authority have been ignored. Should you wish to prevent your account being passed to the bailiff you should contact the council immediately to establish a suitable repayment planicon and avoid further charges being incurred".

A very enlightened council it would seem. I'd be more convinced if it was anybody but Philips and Jacobs! There may be some East Riding residents able to confirm how good this system is.

Elsinore

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