A MAJOR debt relief charity is warning that bailiffs are being called in by City of York Council more and more often.

The council's use of enforcement agents - as bailiffs are legally known - has risen by eight percent over the last two years - to 5,714 in 2014/15.

The city compares well to the national figure - which has seen the total use of bailiffs by councils go up by 16 percent in two years - but experts from the Money Advice Trust are still warning that turning to bailiffs to collect unpaid debts often makes the situation worse.

The charity's chief executive Joanna Elson said: “Local councils are facing significant funding pressures – and they of course have a duty to collect what they are owed. In the case of council tax this is crucial in ensuring proper funding for the services that local people rely on.

"The council’s use of bailiffs, however, remains too high. On the front line of debt advice we know that sending the bailiffs in can deepen debt problems, rather than solve them – and it can also have a severe impact on the wellbeing of people who are often already in a vulnerable situation."

She has urged councillors to look at bailiffs as the last resort.

But city council representatives have pointed out that while the overall use of bailiffs has gone up, they are actually being used less and less for council tax arrears.

The council's assistant director, customers and employees, Pauline Stuchfield said the number of referrals for unpaid council tax fell in 2014/15 to 3,637 instances, from 4,791 in 2012/13.

Ms Stutchfield said: "All local authorities use enforcement agents (EAs) to collect outstanding debt where in-house recovery methods have been exhausted.

"The use of EAs is not restricted to council tax but they are also used to recover unpaid parking fines, housing rents, business rates and overpaid housing benefit. We do not use EAs where a customer gets council tax support."

She also said that not every referral to an EA results in a visit, but as many as half are resolved within three weeks via a phone call, email or letter. Anyone who is struggling to cope with debt can get free advice from National Debtline at www.nationaldebtline.org or 0808 808 4000.