Many parts of the council tax system are broken - finally a chance to improve them! Including the hideous council tax debt collection methods, the difficulty of challenging your band and of claiming the Severe Mental Impairment discount. At 9:30am govt will launch a consultation on 'Council Tax Administration (Eng)' (ie how its operated, not its existence) Here's my official quote on it on behalf of @mmhpi and @moneysavinexp who I've campaigned with on different parts of it. “Many parts of the Council Tax system are broken, and having called for some of these fixes for nearly 20 years, I’m delighted the government has listened and rapidly launched this long-due consultation, including many of the administration areas I hear the most complaints on." “Council Tax rapid and aggressive debt collection methods currently hurt millions and disproportionately affect those with mental health problems. Within three weeks of missing a monthly payment many councils say you must pay for the whole year… ridiculous, how can people who can’t afford to pay for a month, suddenly pay for a year?" "After a further three weeks councils can call bailiffs in and rack up charges on charges. No commercial lender is allowed to behave like this, meaning constituents are treated worse than consumers. Worse, it’s counter-productive, can add to council’s costs and still doesn’t mean people can pay it back. The government has listened to our evidence, and this consultation thankfully looks at slowing it down, adding-in consideration, capping added costs, and pointing people towards help to pay." “Plus, as council tax bands haven’t been revalued since the stop-gap drive-by valuations first done back in 1991, while looking at that isn’t in the scope of this consultation, it’s only right that if people think they’re wrongly in too high a band, as 100,000s likely are, the government is consulting on making it easier to challenge, so people can pay the right price." "The consultation is also proposing help for some of the most vulnerable – we’ve long campaigned on the horribly-named Severe Mental Impairment discount, which is underclaimed, overcomplex and underpublicised, and this gives an opportunity to move towards a simpler, more universal, less off-putting application process.” ------------- Other things in the consultation (which it wants you to feed on, I'll put a link out when it is live - the more people who have their say the better) include - Shifting the default payment to 12 not 10monthly (you'll still be able to opt for 10mths if you want though) - Uplifting the min earnings amount for carers & apprenticeship discounts