Authority sees biggest increase in council tax write-offs in Wales
CARMARTHENSHIRE Council saw the biggest increase in council tax payments being written off
ocal authorities in Wales wrote off more than £32 million in council tax payments due from residents in just five years.
In total, the 22 councils across the country have scrapped payments worth £32.6 million across the past five full financial years.
Last year alone the cost of unpaid council tax written off by authorities topped £6.5 million.
The biggest increase in the amount written off between 2016-17 and 2017-18 was £296,000 .in Carmarthenshire Las its total lept from £85,000 to £381,000.
Ceredigion Council saw a £21,000 reduction in the amount written off, falling from £200,000 to £179,000.
The authority which wrote off the most council tax in 2017-18 was Wrexham, with a total of £922,000.
The council wrote off £285,000 more in 2017-18 than it did the year before.
Swansea wrote off the second highest amount, with £848,000 written off over the past financial year – an increase of more than £100,000 from the financial year before.
The amount written off by all Welsh authorities varies each year but the average over the past five full financial years is more than £6.5 million annually.
In 2013-14 the total amount was £6.7 million, which fell in 2014-15 to £6 million.
The following year the bill for written off council tax across Wales hit £7 million.
It dropped to £6.4 million in 2016-17 then rose slightly in 2017-18 to £6.5 million.
In 2017-18 authorities in Wales collected 97.4% of council tax billed, an increase of 0.1 of a percentage point – the highest collection rate since the introduction of council tax.
The total amount collected – as of March 31, 2018 – was £87 million. They collected £27 million of arrears.
Carmarthenshire Council was not available to comment.