Local authorities in England and Wales instructed bailiffs to collect debts on 2.1 million occasions last year, according to new research by the Money Advice Trust. Overall bailiff use by local authorities has risen by 16 percent in the past two years, the debt advice charity said, despite calls for debt collection practices to improve and wide variations across the country. The charity’s Stop The Knock research, based on freedom of information requests to local authorities, shows the readiness with which councils are instructing private bailiffs. The trust said local authorities that use bailiffs the most were found to have had less success, on average, in collecting council tax arrears. Council tax debts were passed to bailiffs, now legally known as enforcement agents, on 1.27 million occasions during 2014/2015. Parking-related debts were passed to bailiffs 715,000 times and housing benefit overpayments on 40,000 occasions.....Read more here