CONCERNS have been raised about Maldon bailiffs being told to spot vulnerable people with mental health problems as they are "more interested in picking up their debt".

Maldon District Council insists its debt collection strategy aims to identify vulnerable people at every step, but admitted issues occur when people do not engage with letters, emails or phone calls.

At a scrutiny meeting last week, councillors resolved to investigate an additional step, such as using volunteers or employing other care providers to check on those not responding, before sending bailiffs.

Councillor Mark Bassenger (Ind, Althorne) suggested at the meeting that because bailiffs are paid on a no-collection-no-fee basis they are less likely to correctly identify debtors as vulnerable.

He said: "It just seems that our duty of care really should really make sure that we spot the vulnerable person before the enforcement agent goes in, because my way of thinking, cynical as it is I know, that if an agency sends in people to vulnerable people to collect debt they're very unlikely to be looking to be picking up whether or not they're vulnerable or not, they're more interested in picking up their debt, I would have thought."

Answering questions from councillors, customer, community and casework manager Sue Green revealed a lack of communication meant bailiffs were sometimes the first council representatives to meet debtors in person.

She said: "Sometimes an enforcement agent turning up on the door is the first time we actually get to understand that that person might have mental health problems or might be unwell, might be elderly and quite often that's what happens, is that it's that face to face when they actually see somebody for the first time, because unfortunately when people are in debt, one of the things we find is that people just ignore it and hope it will go away."

Enforcement agencies have a referral system for vulnerable people and receive ongoing training.

If an enforcement officer determines a person to be vulnerable, they refer the case to a separate team.

However, they are paid via a fee charged to the resident, set out in legislation. According to Citizens Advice, this is a fixed £235, plus 7.5 per cent extra for debts over £1,500.

The council's corporate debt strategy is currently under review and due to be brought before councillors next year. The committee agreed to recommend officers investigate the feasibility of an additional step before this next update.

However, Mrs Green qualified this would be a "fairly large undertaking."

She said: "The numbers of people that are identified as vulnerable are very, very small compared with the overall numbers, so proportionally the resource that would go into identifying a relatively small number of vulnerable people, it is something that would need to be carefully considered."

The strategy currently aims to identify vulnerable customers at every stage and does not have a single definition of what constitutes vulnerability.

There is also an independent advice service for debtors, currently being provided by Citizens Advice.

Chairing the meeting, Councillor Vanessa Bell (Ind, Burnham-on-Crouch South) said the council should congratulate itself over its record on debt collection, after officers revealed only two people in the last five years had goods repossessed from their homes.

She said: "Members, this is something we need to be shouting about.

"This is something we're doing really, really well, so I'd like to thank Councillor Morris in his absence for bringing this item, because it's given us an opportunity to shout about something that we do very, very well as a council, I think."