Swale council ordered bailiffs to chase up nearly 7,000 debts in the last 12 months – a 62% rise from the number two years ago.

In the 2014/15 financial year, the authority registered 6,653 debts owed by individuals and businesses to bailiffs and ended the year with £4.6 million in unpaid council tax arrears.

The findings rank Swale 76th out of 326 authorities for debt collector use.

They also show a huge jump from the numbers in 2012, when Swale made 4,110 referrals to enforcement agents.

Nationally, bailiffs were instructed 2.1 million times by authorities over debts ranging from parking fines to unpaid business rates.

The figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, have raised concerns council officials are not doing enough to help those struggling with debts.

The charity National Debtline, which submitted data requests to all 375 local authorities in England and Wales, is now calling on councils to do more to help people. Last year, National Debtline offered help to 169 Swale residents.

Joanna Elson OBE, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, which runs National Debtline, said: “We know that sending the bailiffs in can deepen debtproblems, rather than solve them.

“It can also have a severe impact on the wellbeing of people who are often already in a vulnerable situation.

“Our research shows that the councils who use bailiffs the most are actually less effective at collecting council tax arrears.”

A spokesman for Swale council said: “The rise in the use in bailiffs is mainly due to legislation coming into effect which changed Council Tax Benefit to Council Tax Support, meaning all working age claimants now have to pay something towards their council tax, which was not previously the case.

“Bailiffs are always only used as a last resort.”