Low staffing blamed for tax take falling

Low staffing levels are one of the reasons why Dudley Council is falling behind on council tax collection according to a new report.

The authority keeps track of how much cash it has collected each month as a percentage of what it aims to take during a full financial year.

Between April and June, the first quarter of the financial year, Dudley had collected 24.8 percent (£50.4m) of the total the yearly take.

At the same time last year the council had collected 28.5 percent and the 2025/26 total so far is also below the authority’s target of 27.4 percent.

A report for the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which is set to meet on September 17, said: “The shortfall is attributed to a 4.99 percent increase in council tax, a rise in Council Tax Reduction (CTR) to 60 percent, and delays in processing direct debits. 

“The service is facing operational challenges, including insufficient recovery team capacity, system downtime, and manual processing due to cloud migration, have further impacted performance.” 

Despite falling short of the target the report also says the amount collected is higher than last year.

A £1m discretionary fund has so far paid out £2,944 to people in severe financial hardship with a further 67 applications being considered.

A total of £243,317 has been paid to care leavers who automatically get financial support if they meet the criteria.

By the end of the last financial year Dudley had collected 96.3 percent of the council tax it was owed which is a slightly better performance than the national average of 95.9 percent.

Another service being impacted by low staffing levels is processing Freedom of Information where nearly one in five requests were not completed within the legal time frame.

The council sets a target of 90 percent completion within statutory limits but in the first quarter of the 2025/26 year the authority managed 81.2 percent.

The report said: “The shortfall is attributed to staffing challenges, with recruitment under way to restore capacity. 

“Despite these pressures, the team’s performance demonstrates resilience, and improvements are expected as staffing levels stabilise.”