“When a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach them. When they don’t know how to behave, we punish them.” These words were quoted by a colleague of mine recently when helping us to understand better how we hold different standards for different problems.

They’re astute, capturing immediately our unconscious bias and revealing how we all have to try and change behaviours for the better. The lesson they contain is also clear: we should teach people how to behave, not rush to punish them if they don’t know what to do.

At a full council meeting last month, I put forward a motion supporting an ethical debt collection policy for Watford. It passed, albeit amended, which means trying to help people rather than punishing them when they owe the council money.

It may surprise you to learn that many private companies and large parts of the public sector have, for instance, abandoned the use of bailiffs for debt collection.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, if the person owing money to the council gets evicted as a result of the non-payment, then the council (and taxpayers) pick up the substantial cost of dealing with the resulting homelessness.

Secondly, evidence from other councils that are pioneering this approach shows that more money is being repaid to councils by those in arrears through arranging realistic repayment plans (not ‘no-repayment’ plans).

Labour councils in Bristol City and Hammersmith & Fulham are leading in this area. Councils now have some of the most draconian approaches to debt, with small amounts owed quickly spiralling into unmanageable amounts, leading to homelessness and sometimes worse.

More and more people don’t know how to manage money and debt. We should teach them, not punish them. We’ll all be richer and kinder if we do.

  • Matt Turmaine is a Labour councillor for Holywell