DEBT help experts have called for more preventative measures in Trafford after the scale of the council’s bailiff use was revealed.

Figures show Trafford Council instructed bailiffs 10,961 to collect debts owed by individuals and businesses during 2014/15 – a two per cent increase on two years ago.

The Money Advice Trust, the charity that runs National Debtline, obtained the figures via a Freedom of Information request and is calling on the council to provide more debt help at an earlier stage before people get into trouble.

Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, said: “Local councils are facing significant funding pressures and they of course have a duty to collect what they are owed.

“The council’s use of bailiffs, however, remains too high. On the front line of debt advice we know that sending the bailiffs in can deepen debt problems, rather than solve them and it can also have a severe impact on the wellbeing of people who are often already in a vulnerable situation.

“Bailiff action is not only harmful to those in arrear, it is also a poor deal for the council taxpayer.

“Our research shows that the councils who use bailiffs the most are actually less effective at collecting council tax arrears.”

The figures also show Trafford Council ended the 2014/15 year with £11.7 million in unpaid council tax arrears and ranks the authority 73 out of 326 for local authority bailiff use in England and Wales, relative to size of authority.

A spokesman for Trafford Council spokesman said the authority ‘always makes every effort to provide support, assistance and advice to anyone who is struggling to pay what they owe the council’.

They added: “It only ever resorts to using enforcement agents when every other effort to work with the individual has failed and other remedies to collect outstanding debts were not viable.

“This is the last course of action the council wishes to take, but it does have a responsibility to all the Borough’s residents to make sure that it does not allow people to fail to pay what they owe.”

Of the £11.7 million uncollected council tax, the authority said less than £10m relates to council tax arrears, with some of the debt dating back to 1996.

They argue the remainder of the figure relates to recovery costs and that since 1996 the council has billed £1.5bn.

Anyone who is struggling to cope with council tax arrears or any other kind of debt can seek free advice from National Debtline at www.nationaldebtline.org or by phoning 0808 808 4000.