Council hires debt collectors to chase unpaid £22m

The council has appointed the two firms to recoup almost £22 million in outstanding debts

A Merseyside council on the brink of bankruptcy is to bring in debt collectors to help it claw back £22m it is owed.

Wirral Council will spend about £1.2m to hire in two firms that will go after unpaid council tax, overpaid benefits and parking fines over the next three years.

The emphasis would be on "fair and respectful" treatment and not imposing "unreasonable hardship" on people who owed the council money, a spokesman said.

The move comes as the council waits to find out if it will get a £40m bailout from the government.

Jacobs Enforcement has been appointed to collect council tax, business rates, housing benefit overpayments and other debts, while Newlyn PLC will be looking to recover parking and traffic enforcement debts.

In the year between April 2023 and March last year, Wirral Council's revenues and benefits team collected £1.9 million out of a total of £11.2 million owed in over 10,000 cases.

Just over half of parking fines were collected.

The council also said it was also planning to refer £1.1 million in debts related to adult social care to enforcement.

According to Wirral Council's latest accounts, it is owed £23.9 million in council tax and business rates, up from £15.5 million during the previous year.