BARNSLEY Council wrote off more than £67,000 worth of unpaid council tax as ‘bad debt’ over the latest 12-month period.
The figures have been revealed ahead of next week’s full council meeting and show that the total amount of council tax outstanding at the end of 2025/26 was £6.5m.
This figure was up from £5.6m a year before.
However, the amount of council tax written off as bad debt has dropped from £80,679 to £67,052.
In addition to these figures, a question was also submitted by a member of the public seeking information on enforcement action taken by the council when residents go into arrears.
Councils send bailiffs - officially known as enforcement agents - to collect council tax arrears as a last resort when you miss payments, ignore their letters, and fail to set up an affordable payment arrangement.
A response shows that in 2025/26, bailiffs were sent out more than 7,300 times.
When no action is yielded, the council then often send out a second, different bailiff.
This occurred on 2,564 occasions last year.
It is up from 6,363 first placement bailiffs, and 1,553 returning bailiffs a year prior.
