28/05/2013
Something that was entirely predictable has been doing the rounds in the legacy media, with a fullish report in the loss-making
Guardian. The issue being reported is the sequella to changes to the Council Tax benefit system which mean that many more people are having to pay money directly to their councils instead of having it paid for them.
Inevitably, this means that the number of defaulters has increased, which has had Citizens Advice warning that increasing numbers of low incomes households could be at the mercy of "aggressive bailiffs".
Says Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy, "We're concerned that changes to council tax benefit will mean more people will end up in debt because they can't pay their bill and have the bailiff knocking at their door".
Guy then goes on to say, with weary predictability, "Bailiffs often overstate their powers, deliberately frighten debtors and charge extortionate fees", then adding: "We want councils to help people get on top of their council tax debts so the use of bailiffs is no longer necessary".
The thing here is that we know that bailiffs do far more than "overstate their powers", as witnessed by an illustration offered by the
Guardian, no doubt provided by Citizens Advice.
This is Raymond Merry and his wife Susan who recently found themselves at the sharp end of bailiff's practice. They fell a month behind on their council tax payments after both had been taken ill in December and paid their January bill two days late.
"The next thing I knew I had a note pushed under my door by a bailiff who was sitting in a van outside," says Raymond Merry. "He tried to walk in but I stopped him. He told me we owed him £300 â £107 was our debt and the rest in fees to him".
The Merrys then paid off their arrears but the bailiffs kept coming round. "My wife was very worried and we felt threatened," said Mr Merry. "In the end, after we had told them numerous times that we had been to Citizens Advice and that we had paid off our arrears, they stopped coming round".
The point, of course, is that the bailiff's action was almost certainly illegal. We have rehearsed this in detail, and even got an admission from West Yorkshire Police that seeking to obtain fees which were not due constituted fraud â a criminal offence.
But, as we all know, the business model of the bailiff industry is based on criminality. And their behaviour is
not new to Citizens Advice, which routinely complains about the behaviour of bailiffs, and then does precisely nothing about it.
Effectively, Citizens Advice is an Uncle Tom charity, supported by government funds to shore up an illegal system, and take the edge of malpractice which, if it is allowed to develop too far, is going to get someone killed.
The charity could actually do something about this malpractice. It could point out that bailiffs are acting illegally. It could point out that their illegality is being condoned by the local authorities which employ them, making them co-conspirators in what has become a conspiracy to defraud.
It could also point out that the illegality is condoned by the police which, instead of doing their duty and upholding the law, more often than not aid and abet bailiffs in their illegal actions, making them also co-conspirators in these egregious breaches of the law.
Failing then to achieve change, Citizens Advice could actually take a private prosecution, seeking to have a bailiff summonsed, tried and convicted for fraud, and a local authority convicted for conspiracy to defraud â as the bailiff acts as the local authority's agent and is vicariously liable for its actions.
But Citizens Advice does nothing except whinge to the media and collect government funds for keeping the lid on an illegal system.
And that brings us to the issue of moral authority. Specifically, a government body (viz, a local authority) which relies for its debt collection system on illegal actions of its agents, and knowingly conspires to perpetrate multiple, criminal frauds, has no moral authority. The system is morally bankrupt.
To such people, we owe no support, no compliance, no obedience. They are no better than the thieves who break into your home and rob you of your possessions. They are criminals. And, sadly, they are part of our government.
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