Scrapping car tax discs still causing confusion, clamping figures suggest

Motorists are being urged to check whether their car tax has expired to avoid having their vehicles towed away and being hit with a fine.

It is now a year since the tax disc was scrapped - but motorists are still struggling to adjust to the new electronic system, figures suggest.

The number of vehicles being clamped or impounded jumped from about 5,500 a month under the old system to more than 8,000 a month.

And in July it hit a peak of 10,554.

The rise has been put down to confusion over new rules that came in at the same time that tax discs were scrapped after 93 years.

'Obvious reminder'

The DVLA is urging motorists to check the tax status of their vehicles on their website. This is accessible on mobile devices and works by entering the vehicle's make and registration number.

Most people know that they no longer have to display a tax disc in their car window, an AA spokesman said.

Tax discs have now disappeared for good

But many do not realise that when they sell a car or transfer its ownership the new owner has to tax the car even if the previous owner had several months of outstanding tax.

It has put an end to the longstanding practice of advertising second hand cars that are taxed up to a certain date - but is also causing confusion among those who did not opt to set up a direct debit when the new system came in, added an AA spokesman, despite DVLA reminder letters.

"The disc was an obvious reminder. It has now gone and we think people might be forgetting," he added.

Motoring organisations say the introduction of the new system was botched and have called for a publicity campaign to inform motorists of the changes.

The DVLA says it sends reminder letters to all new vehicle keepers - but some motorists claim they were not notified.

Dylan Casella, a student at Portsmouth University, had his car towed away and was hit with a £242 fine when his father transferred the ownership of a car into his name so he could get a parking permit.

'Car had disappeared'

He told the BBC's You and Yours programme: "Once I received the car I didn't receive anything from the DVLA to say 'your car is not taxed and you need to renew it'. So as far as I was concerned I thought the tax had carried on and that was that.

"I had actually gone on holiday to Budapest and returned to find my car had disappeared off the road. I headed home and checked in the post and found a letter from the DVLA to say my car had been towed, and taken up to Reading. And they said I had to come and collect it and pay £242.

"I was very surprised because as far as I knew I thought the car was taxed."

A DVLA spokeswoman said the "vast majority of people tax their cars on time", with over 47 million drivers taxing their vehicles since 1 October 2014. Of these, nearly 34 million have chosen to tax their vehicles online or by phone."

Clamping "remains an effective enforcement tool," she added, but it was "very much a last resort - vehicle keepers will typically receive a number of reminder letters advising them that they need to tax their vehicle before we take any enforcement action".

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act in September revealed the number of vehicles clamped or impounded went up from 5,806 in October 2014, when tax discs were scrapped, to more than 8,000 every month from January to August.

The DVLA has denied claims by the AA that it is making more than £38m out of the new system, saying it has handed out more than double that amount in automatic tax refunds to motorists.

The organisation is carrying out research into how many untaxed vehicles are currently on Britain's roads and will publish figures by the end of the year.