Overview

• The UK government has opened a formal consultation on council tax debt collection to explore potential reforms to enforcement processes.
• Money expert Martin Lewis highlighted that current council tax enforcement is unusually rapid and aggressive compared with bank debt collection.
• Kate Garraway revealed that bailiffs arrived at her home just six weeks after council tax went unpaid while her husband, Derek Draper, lay in a Covid-induced coma.
• Garraway’s personal debts are estimated between £500,000 and £800,000 after she funded £16,000 a month in care costs and sought to settle liabilities from Derek’s collapsed psychotherapy firm.
• She also experienced a temporary blockade on her Barclays accounts following a phone handset change, illustrating wider consumer frustration with financial services.