This government is not for the people. They are for themselves and they see the people as foolish, fearful cows to be milked dry and trod upon.
Get rid of taxes by sacking civil servants, deregulating, devolution and by abolishing welfare. Give people greater freedom and autonomy to self-determine.
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Thousands being made bankrupt thanks to council tax arrears
Councils are increasingly using bailiffs and court summonses to collect unpaid council tax, resulting in thousands of householders being made bankrupt, it has been reported. By Chris Irvine Last Updated: 1:18PM GMT 07 Jan 2009
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information legislation by the Liberal Democrats show that 3,500 householders across England and Wales were pursued for bankruptcy or made bankrupt by town halls last year.
Citizens Advice have separately found that town halls filed more than
5,000 petitions for bankruptcy, which resulted in at least 1,000 cases of seizure of assets.Some households which owe hundreds of pounds are then hit with debts reaching tens of thousands as a result of such action, it has been claimed.
Pensioners and poor families, the worst hit, have been forced to sell their homes to meet legal costs arising from the bankruptcy orders, according to Citizens Advice.
Figures show that bailiffs were used in 1.2 million cases to recover council tax arrears last year, while 2.5m households received summonses.
It also showed that of 19,156 bankruptcy petitions, one in five was lodged by a local authority - compared to a proportion of one in a hundred 15 years ago.
Julia Goldsworthy, the Lib Dems' local government spokesman, said: "Public bodies should do everything they can to ensure that bankruptcy is avoided where possible."
The Department for Communities and Local Government argued that local authorities needed to chase arrears in order to prevent bills from increasing.
A spokesman said: "Local authorities must have the tools at their disposal to tackle the small minority of people who can but won't pay."
Sir Jeremy Beecham, the vice-chair-man of the Local Government Association, said: "People struggling to pay bills are given as much leeway as possible."