I thought the idea of ‘reform’ was to make things better? But apparently not always. In case you missed it: Cornwall Council are reporting a surge in rent arrears due to the bedroom tax with 560 tenants already in arrears. Many are said to have never been in arrears before and each person caught up in this must also bear the emotional costs of debt and uncertainty of losing their home.

As for Council Tax, the Council have already issued 48,600 reminders – up 40% on last year. With changes to the benefit system, already 28% of the 20,000 new payers are in arrears (5,500) and 1,000 of them have already received a court summons.

This number can only be set to rise. How high? And on top of the cost of the reminders, what is the cost of raising 1,000 court summonses so far? (Just in Cornwall!) Then there will be all the staff costs, court time, enforcement charges and ultimately will some people end up in prison with criminal records because they still can’t pay? There are issues of credit ratings, references for jobs, losing tenancies – the social effects and consequential costs are potentially enormous.

And these aren’t just one off charges – this is ongoing, forever, for everyone concerned. Once the bailiffs have had the TVs this time, what are they going to take next? This is ultimately going to cost us all more than any financial contribution to the public purse of the value of these charges and the rest of us will end up paying for it in legal fees, enforcement and massive Council staff costs; resulting in increases to our Council Tax or a loss of services which they can no longer fund.

I don’t blame the Council; they are just doing as they are ordered. This is down to central government. I believe that people who can pay should pay but many of these people obviously have next to nothing and are really struggling – so why are we targeting them when they simply can’t afford to pay? It was never going to work. Why not go after second home owners, buy to let landlords and ‘mansion’ owners?

Add this to all the other welfare reforms that are hitting the most vulnerable in our society and I can’t help thinking we have got ourselves into a right pickle here and this will ultimately lead to very serious financial and social consequences - for us all.

Marc Laundon Falmouth