BARNSLEY: Over £6.5 million in council tax unpaid last year, council reveals
It's a significant increase on the year before
Barnsley Council has revealed that over £6.5 million in council tax was unpaid for the 2025/26 financial year.
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council was asked for the amount of council tax which was outstanding at the end of the 2025/26 and 2024/25 financial years.
For the 2024/25 financial year, the council reported the figure as £5,632,077.
For the 2025/26 financial year, there was a significant increase, with £6,537,986 unpaid in council tax across the borough.
The council also reported that over £80,000 of this was eventually written off as ‘bad debt’ for 2024/25, and for 2025/26 it was just over £67,000.
A ‘bad debt’ in the context of council tax refers to unpaid tax that the local council has officially noted as uncollectable.
When all recovery methods – such as court liability orders, bailiffs action or benefit deductions – have been exhausted, the council then writes this debt off in its accounts to reflect the lost income.
The council has released the number of occasions in which unpaid council tax arrears resulted in the use of enforcement agents or bailiffs.
In 2025/26, there were 9,952 instances, up from 2024/25, where there were 7,916 instances of bailiffs being used.