More than 2,000 residents in Denbighshire are struggling to pay their council tax bills leaving them in long term debt, new figures show.

The situation for families in financial difficulty is made worse by the fact those failing to meet payments are often hit with added administration and bailiff fees making the amount they are in arrears even higher.

A Freedom of Information request to Denbighshire County Council showed that up to March this year the council had 3,155 people on its books showing as being in arrears for council tax, but the number of people in long-term debt of two or more years was 2,012.

Those in arrears for two or more consecutive years collectively owed £1,797,772.

Denbighshire Free Press: Cllr Rhys ThomasCllr Rhys Thomas

When residents fall behind on their council tax and the authority has to write to them, a £75 administration fee is added to their debt and every time a visit from a bailiff has to arranged £235 goes on the bill.

Now two Denbigh county councillors, have called on the authority to stop the practice of charging the fees as they say they are just increasing the debt of people who already cannot afford to pay.

Lower Denbigh county councillor, Rhys Thomas, said: “You’ve almost £2m there and we have all these cuts to make, but it’s the wrong way to do it. They’re having problems because of austerity. So the council needs to have something in place to prevent families that are struggling from getting into arrears and the answer isn’t to pass the arrears onto outside companies because that just increases the amount that they owe. The council needs to be aware that many families are struggling.

“It’s just moving the debt around, it’s council debt so we’re just hitting the people who can least afford to pay it.”

Upper Denbigh and Henllan county councillor, Glenn Swingler, said: “This is the problem, they’re already in arrears with this, people will pay their council tax ahead of anything else which means they are probably not paying their rent or their mortgage or they’re taking out payday loans.

“And then when they have fallen behind it doesn’t help that extra fees get added to their debt, it needs to stop.

“These are all working families in all of the cases I have had to deal with.

“People are in so much financial difficulty at the moment, they’re going out to work, they quite often need to run two cars to get to and from work, they’ve got school uniforms at this time and food prices are going up.”

A spokeswoman for debt advice charity, Christians Against Poverty, said: “Our research shows that people have greater levels of stress for local or central government debts than for other household bills which is why our advice is always to seek help early on rather than later.

“Thankfully, no one can be jailed for non payment of council tax now in Wales, but it still needs to be dealt with ideally before collection agencies are called in.

“There are lots of free debt agencies to ring and we’d recommend anyone in need calls them to find a way forward.”

A Denbighshire County Council spokesman said: “When a case is referred to enforcement agents a fee of £75 is incurred by the customer. This amount is set in legislation nationally and local authorities have no discretion over this charge.

“The customer has 14 days to respond to this action and enforcement agents will try to engage as much as possible during and after this period, using a comprehensive package of communication styles and technology.

“Before a case is referred to enforcement agents, the customer will have received a minimum of two letters, a minimum of two phone calls and where possible follow up emails. We will also use social media to encourage people struggling to pay to engage with us.

“We work closely with Citizens Advice Denbighshire and will make referrals to them when customers agree and will make every effort to help customers who are struggling to pay.

“Anyone who is having issues paying their council tax is encouraged to contact the council on 01824 706000.”