According to an annual report by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), there has been a 166% rise in vehicle clamping over the past three years because of drivers failing to pay their vehicle excise duty (VED). That’s a two-fold increase in clamping since the road tax disc was abolished in 2014.
In the last year alone, nearly 160,000 vehicles were clamped or towed away. This compares with roughly 60,000 vehicles clamped per year before the paper tax disc was consigned to the history books.
The report also highlights that in the three years to April 2017, out of court settlements for unpaid VED shot up by 168%. Over that period, the number of penalties issued also increased (by 155%), while prosecutions leapt by 159%. More sobering still is that drivers have been fined up to £800 for non-payment of VED.
Evasion, confusion – or just plain forgetfulness?
Evasion, confusion and forgetfulness are all being blamed for the upturn in clamping. Either motorists are deliberately trying to play the system, aren’t aware they need to pay VED when they buy a car privately, or are simply forgetting to pay the tax altogether. Some motoring groups are concerned that the lack of a tax disc in windscreens means that some drivers don’t have the visual reminder that a VED payment is due. According to the AA’s Jack Cousens,
“Although the majority get a reminder by post, some won’t as they have failed to inform DVLA of a change of address, while others simply get lost in the post.”
Perhaps the best solution for those who are forgetful is to take advantage of the DLVA’s option to pay VED by monthly direct debit. It means that the absent-minded motorist need never miss a payment again.
Motoring groups also believe that part of the problem is caused by consumers buying cars in a private sales. Previously, the tax would automatically continue, but now the new owner must ensure that their purchase is taxed before they head out on the road. As the RAC Foundation’s Phil Gomm points out:
“The data suggests there are still too many people unaware that when they buy a car the tax no longer comes with it.”
Clamping down on dodgers
Alas, some drivers simply believe that they can game the system and not bother to pay at all. The reason? They believe it’s far more difficult for the authorities to catch them, as a tax disc no longer has to be displayed.
However, the DVLA argues that automatic number plate recognition cameras will spot VED dodgers. It is standing firm on the changes to how the duty is collected – and on the punishments it hands out to those who fail to pay. After all, the DVLA claims that it is losing £78 million in revenue because of the problem. That’s a sizeable chunk of the £5.9 billion raised by the duty each year. A DVLA spokesperson commented,
“It’s easier than ever before to tax your vehicle, and more than 98 per cent of vehicles on the road are correctly taxed. The law is clear and that is why we take action against those who break the law on behalf of the taxpayer.”
To ensure that you are fully paid up, head here to tax your vehicle. Alternatively, check to see if the vehicle is taxed already by clicking here. Bear in mind that any changes to the DLVA’s records can take up to five working days to update.
How to pay your fine
If you are fined for the non-payment of VED, there are several options for paying the fine quickly. Doing so ensures you don’t fall foul of further DVLA penalties. Such penalties can include having your car clamped or crushed. DLVA can also pass your outstanding fine to a debt collection agency to ‘administer.’
Pay online
Click here to begin the process – remember, you will need the DVLA letter that states the fine to be paid, as well as your car’s registration number and the debit or credit card you intend to use to pay the fine.
Pay by phone
Call the DVLA direct on 0300 790 6808 on weekdays between 9am-5pm. Again, have your DVLA letter, registration number and payment card to hand.
Pay by post
You can send a cheque or postal order made payable to the DVLA. Ensure you write your registration number on the back before posting it to:
DVLA Enforcement Centre
D12 Longview Road
Morriston
Swansea
SA99 1AH
– Should the clamping increase be ignored because the responsibility should be on the driver, not the DVLA? Or should the agency reintroduce the tax disc to help people remember more easily and make it harder for VED dodgers? Let us know your thoughts below.
The omnipotent state in its headlong rush for digitalisation forgets that humans are analogue creatures that don’t spend their lives anticipating the next intrusive assault on their person.
The so called administrative ‘efficiency’ is a poor reward for trampling the social graces.
Hear, hear, Joseph!
Luckily for me, I have an electronic brain that lives in my pocket all day and tells me where I have to be, when I have to be there, what I need to do when I get there, and reminds me about things like this. So far, I haven’t fallen victim to this issue but there’s always the time when even my electronic brain fails, and then I’ll no doubt be labelled as a dissenter by the state and penalised to their fullest extent for my single offence!!
The tax disc in the screen was a great reminder. I have yet to find anywhere to print ones to act as a reminder – only ones for historic vehicles. Fortunately I have not forgotten to renew car tax under the new system – yet!
You can quickly and easily make and print your own ‘tax disc’ here: http://freeroadtaxreminder.com/
Enjoy 🙂
It’s about time the DVLA starting issuing road tax from a specific date rather than 1st of the month. Either that or when a car is sold then the vehicle remains taxed for the remainder of that month as only whole months get refunded anyway.
It seems grossly unfair that both the old and new owners pay for the same month.
I’d have thought it was illegal not to refund part month when the vehicle is sold on as this becomes ‘double taxation’.
What will the government tax when everyone has electric vehicles?
I think doing away with the paper disc & holder is great. Where a distance sight of a round paper would not go further, now, all vehicles can be properly checked.
If you have forgotten or made a mistake, then it is your bad luck so hopefully you won’t do it again but what I would find encouraging is if more untaxed cars are pounded which is a good thing for those who take the time & make the effort to pay their RFL.
I agree there is an element sneakiness (and money making for the gov) in the way refunds are given but not passing on RFL to a new owner means the new owner has to tax which can be done with a valid MOT and not a fake piece of paper
Bring back the Tax Disc – Please!
I have experienced a couple of issues with due tax, one where the P.O. did not complete the details properly on my historic vehicle and the other where the reminder on my regular car got lost in the post. I now keep a facsimile on the windscreen on each car as a permanent reminder when they are due. I would happily pay extra for the disc if necessary although, of course, it should only be pence.
I (and I suspect many others) would like to pay using a monthly or 6 monthly direct debit BUT a 5% surcharge seems excessive (like robbery?) and is certainly discouraging me from using the facility.
Hear, hear, Joseph!
Luckily for me, I have an electronic brain that lives in my pocket all day and tells me where I have to be, when I have to be there, what I need to do when I get there, and reminds me about things like this. So far, I haven’t fallen victim to this issue but there’s always the time when even my electronic brain fails, and then I’ll no doubt be labelled as a dissenter by the state and penalised to their fullest extent for my single offence!!
ANPR sounds great, but all you need to know is where the cameras are, and avoid them. Perhaps they could use the BBC instead, as their war on licence dodgers is of epic proportions. All the DVLA has to do is assume that every household in the country has at least one car, and send the detector vans around.each unlicensed address to check.
Abolish VED and put an additional charge on fuel that way everyone pays, without exception.
Take the untaxed vehicles off them and crush them uninsured vehicles as well hit these drivers very hard the law abiding ones bear all the cost of these people There should be no excuses either The law is too soft fines are money kept in the back pocket for most
Ha, funny how the Audi at the top doesn’t have Tax or MOT, but got insurance.
ANPR will only work if they keep quiet about it and the public don’t know where they are.
When you pay online you can print a recipe why don’t they add a disc on bottom you can cut out and put in your Car it won’t be a legal document but just a reminder
Why doesn’t the DVLA simply introduce a feature on its website, to give vehicle-owners the option to print their own tax disc when they renew their road tax online?
this still does not address the problems of immigrants, ethnic minorities or gypsies that continue to drive without tax insurance and mot, but in many cases don’t even have a licence
I would to know how you manage to renew your car tax if you’re a disabled driver with your own car as opposed to a fleet car, ie Motability. Having a brain injury that affects my memory, let me put it this way. I don’t need fork out for wallpaper. Joking apart, I know when my car tax is due, but as how to renew it I haven’t a clue. Insurance is esy, I have documents, but tax has confused me even more
Anyone who has an untaxed vehicle knows it’s untaxed. The blame everyone or everything else but yourself is all too common. I have had no difficulty in renewing my road fund license whatsoever. The confirmation comes in the form of an email so you have your proof and your paper reminder! What else do you want? Regarding Motorbility vehicles, my understanding is that the insurance, road fund license and all other legal requirements are taken care of by Motorbility so there is nothing to worry about. I don’t accept the lame or blame game. It’s a legal requirement and if you fail to comply, you are not insured and therefore create serious issues for others if you have an accident. I have no sympathy whatsoever for anyone who gets caught and fined. The penalties should be heavier!
Hi Brian, renewing your tax isn’t really the issue as you correctly point out, but see my comment above to see just one way this new method appears to be designed to fail and thus generate fines revenue. Cheers, Dave.
Bad/Bad, “tax-disc” discontinued. How many cars we see outdated disc’s showing on their screen’s, being parked on the road while walking pass. Questionable, are they insured ? Not an hope in hell ! Why, they under the impression that this tax-disc showing would be saying, this car’s taxed. The law says, no MOT or not insured, it’s against the law and a motoring offence. They have a right taking it off the road and, should be scrapped. (Recent models) these being auctioned off (public sale) fair price for DVLA.
One point, our traffic-officers saying, “they only deal with the parking problems on our roads, tax-disc displacement and road tax are an police involvement (responsibility) and, they would take any undertaking regarding road-tax-evading”
The likelihood, an police-officer checking its Tax at DVLA and, waiting for its owner on returning, would be startling, my reflections, unforeseen. It’s some 80-100 probability, eluding (getting away) road-Tax, YES ?
Have-a-nice-day !
In defence of of us ‘stupid’ people who should magically know when the DVLA are Bureaucratically ‘Red Taping’ us to the max.
A couple of years ago we changed the registered keeper of a Nissan Micra from our daughter who’d learnt to drive in it back to my Wife as a second car. We were all living in the same house.
The year before we’d switched it the other way when the tax disc was in the windscreen with no issues (because the insurance company insisted the car was registered in my daughters name for her to earn no claims bonus although I owned it throughout this sorry saga).
We sent the V5c off about 14 working days before the end of the March with everything dated to change over at the end of the month so the tax refund would be for whole months and my Wife would then pay from the beginning of April.
I went online on the DVLA website on the 1st of April to pay the road tax but it showed as still taxed so I thought the system wasn’t as bad as we were led to believe and they’d spotted that it was the same names still living at the same address and so the tax had been simply left in place.
Oh No!
The thieves at DVLA took nearly a month to process the change and on the 14th of April sent my daughter (the ‘old’ keeper) a refund cheque from the 1st of May.
‘Her’ road tax had been cancelled on the 8th April.
So my Wife’s car was now not taxed but we’d been driving it not knowing.
We only found out then because my daughter was still in the same house with us, otherwise we’d only have known when the fines arrived.
How often do the old and new keepers live in the same house?
Remember, I went to pay on line on time but it was taxed. Would you have checked again, and how many times?
No, me neither.
So, I had to tax it from the beginning of April (which I’d previously paid in my daughter’s name) which means we paid for April TWICE and yet the days between the 8th and 14th we weren’t taxed and could have been fined!!!
I got my MP involved and of course nothing could be done.
Welcome to Broken Britain!
The TAX disc was a VISUAL aid to patrolling Police or PCSO’s now they have to get a PCN only if good reason. A new neighbour had 3 cars parked on highway not taxed and two local PCSO’s and one Police Officer had NO idea of this, at least with the disc they could see and issue a ticket. But now….why do I pay my VED???
Try driving around the very rural parts of the UK, take a note of the number plates and then when you get home input into the DVLA site, You’ll be amazed at how many are not MOT’d or Taxed. The reason is that the few Police vehicles in the area do not have the ANPR kit and when you provide all the vehicle details on the DVLA site including the address NOTHING is ever done to the owners so they continue to flout the law with impunity.
It drives me MAD
I wondered if you can find out if a vehicle is taxed, now I know where to find out, thank you. But, as you say, when reporting they don’t seem to be interested it makes me annoyed too.
The omnipotent state in its headlong rush for digitalisation forgets that humans are analogue creatures that don’t spend their lives anticipating the next intrusive assault on their person.
The so called administrative ‘efficiency’ is a poor reward for trampling the social graces.
Hear, hear, Joseph!
Luckily for me, I have an electronic brain that lives in my pocket all day and tells me where I have to be, when I have to be there, what I need to do when I get there, and reminds me about things like this. So far, I haven’t fallen victim to this issue but there’s always the time when even my electronic brain fails, and then I’ll no doubt be labelled as a dissenter by the state and penalised to their fullest extent for my single offence!!
The tax disc in the screen was a great reminder. I have yet to find anywhere to print ones to act as a reminder – only ones for historic vehicles. Fortunately I have not forgotten to renew car tax under the new system – yet!
You can quickly and easily make and print your own ‘tax disc’ here: http://freeroadtaxreminder.com/
Enjoy 🙂
It’s about time the DVLA starting issuing road tax from a specific date rather than 1st of the month. Either that or when a car is sold then the vehicle remains taxed for the remainder of that month as only whole months get refunded anyway.
It seems grossly unfair that both the old and new owners pay for the same month.
I’d have thought it was illegal not to refund part month when the vehicle is sold on as this becomes ‘double taxation’.
What will the government tax when everyone has electric vehicles?
I think doing away with the paper disc & holder is great. Where a distance sight of a round paper would not go further, now, all vehicles can be properly checked.
If you have forgotten or made a mistake, then it is your bad luck so hopefully you won’t do it again but what I would find encouraging is if more untaxed cars are pounded which is a good thing for those who take the time & make the effort to pay their RFL.
I agree there is an element sneakiness (and money making for the gov) in the way refunds are given but not passing on RFL to a new owner means the new owner has to tax which can be done with a valid MOT and not a fake piece of paper
Bring back the Tax Disc – Please!
I have experienced a couple of issues with due tax, one where the P.O. did not complete the details properly on my historic vehicle and the other where the reminder on my regular car got lost in the post. I now keep a facsimile on the windscreen on each car as a permanent reminder when they are due. I would happily pay extra for the disc if necessary although, of course, it should only be pence.
I (and I suspect many others) would like to pay using a monthly or 6 monthly direct debit BUT a 5% surcharge seems excessive (like robbery?) and is certainly discouraging me from using the facility.
Hear, hear, Joseph!
Luckily for me, I have an electronic brain that lives in my pocket all day and tells me where I have to be, when I have to be there, what I need to do when I get there, and reminds me about things like this. So far, I haven’t fallen victim to this issue but there’s always the time when even my electronic brain fails, and then I’ll no doubt be labelled as a dissenter by the state and penalised to their fullest extent for my single offence!!
ANPR sounds great, but all you need to know is where the cameras are, and avoid them. Perhaps they could use the BBC instead, as their war on licence dodgers is of epic proportions. All the DVLA has to do is assume that every household in the country has at least one car, and send the detector vans around.each unlicensed address to check.
Abolish VED and put an additional charge on fuel that way everyone pays, without exception.
Take the untaxed vehicles off them and crush them uninsured vehicles as well hit these drivers very hard the law abiding ones bear all the cost of these people There should be no excuses either The law is too soft fines are money kept in the back pocket for most
Ha, funny how the Audi at the top doesn’t have Tax or MOT, but got insurance.
ANPR will only work if they keep quiet about it and the public don’t know where they are.
When you pay online you can print a recipe why don’t they add a disc on bottom you can cut out and put in your Car it won’t be a legal document but just a reminder
Why doesn’t the DVLA simply introduce a feature on its website, to give vehicle-owners the option to print their own tax disc when they renew their road tax online?
this still does not address the problems of immigrants, ethnic minorities or gypsies that continue to drive without tax insurance and mot, but in many cases don’t even have a licence
I would to know how you manage to renew your car tax if you’re a disabled driver with your own car as opposed to a fleet car, ie Motability. Having a brain injury that affects my memory, let me put it this way. I don’t need fork out for wallpaper. Joking apart, I know when my car tax is due, but as how to renew it I haven’t a clue. Insurance is esy, I have documents, but tax has confused me even more
Anyone who has an untaxed vehicle knows it’s untaxed. The blame everyone or everything else but yourself is all too common. I have had no difficulty in renewing my road fund license whatsoever. The confirmation comes in the form of an email so you have your proof and your paper reminder! What else do you want? Regarding Motorbility vehicles, my understanding is that the insurance, road fund license and all other legal requirements are taken care of by Motorbility so there is nothing to worry about. I don’t accept the lame or blame game. It’s a legal requirement and if you fail to comply, you are not insured and therefore create serious issues for others if you have an accident. I have no sympathy whatsoever for anyone who gets caught and fined. The penalties should be heavier!
Hi Brian, renewing your tax isn’t really the issue as you correctly point out, but see my comment above to see just one way this new method appears to be designed to fail and thus generate fines revenue. Cheers, Dave.
Bad/Bad, “tax-disc” discontinued. How many cars we see outdated disc’s showing on their screen’s, being parked on the road while walking pass. Questionable, are they insured ? Not an hope in hell ! Why, they under the impression that this tax-disc showing would be saying, this car’s taxed. The law says, no MOT or not insured, it’s against the law and a motoring offence. They have a right taking it off the road and, should be scrapped. (Recent models) these being auctioned off (public sale) fair price for DVLA.
One point, our traffic-officers saying, “they only deal with the parking problems on our roads, tax-disc displacement and road tax are an police involvement (responsibility) and, they would take any undertaking regarding road-tax-evading”
The likelihood, an police-officer checking its Tax at DVLA and, waiting for its owner on returning, would be startling, my reflections, unforeseen. It’s some 80-100 probability, eluding (getting away) road-Tax, YES ?
Have-a-nice-day !
In defence of of us ‘stupid’ people who should magically know when the DVLA are Bureaucratically ‘Red Taping’ us to the max.
A couple of years ago we changed the registered keeper of a Nissan Micra from our daughter who’d learnt to drive in it back to my Wife as a second car. We were all living in the same house.
The year before we’d switched it the other way when the tax disc was in the windscreen with no issues (because the insurance company insisted the car was registered in my daughters name for her to earn no claims bonus although I owned it throughout this sorry saga).
We sent the V5c off about 14 working days before the end of the March with everything dated to change over at the end of the month so the tax refund would be for whole months and my Wife would then pay from the beginning of April.
I went online on the DVLA website on the 1st of April to pay the road tax but it showed as still taxed so I thought the system wasn’t as bad as we were led to believe and they’d spotted that it was the same names still living at the same address and so the tax had been simply left in place.
Oh No!
The thieves at DVLA took nearly a month to process the change and on the 14th of April sent my daughter (the ‘old’ keeper) a refund cheque from the 1st of May.
‘Her’ road tax had been cancelled on the 8th April.
So my Wife’s car was now not taxed but we’d been driving it not knowing.
We only found out then because my daughter was still in the same house with us, otherwise we’d only have known when the fines arrived.
How often do the old and new keepers live in the same house?
Remember, I went to pay on line on time but it was taxed. Would you have checked again, and how many times?
No, me neither.
So, I had to tax it from the beginning of April (which I’d previously paid in my daughter’s name) which means we paid for April TWICE and yet the days between the 8th and 14th we weren’t taxed and could have been fined!!!
I got my MP involved and of course nothing could be done.
Welcome to Broken Britain!
The TAX disc was a VISUAL aid to patrolling Police or PCSO’s now they have to get a PCN only if good reason. A new neighbour had 3 cars parked on highway not taxed and two local PCSO’s and one Police Officer had NO idea of this, at least with the disc they could see and issue a ticket. But now….why do I pay my VED???
Try driving around the very rural parts of the UK, take a note of the number plates and then when you get home input into the DVLA site, You’ll be amazed at how many are not MOT’d or Taxed. The reason is that the few Police vehicles in the area do not have the ANPR kit and when you provide all the vehicle details on the DVLA site including the address NOTHING is ever done to the owners so they continue to flout the law with impunity.
It drives me MAD
I wondered if you can find out if a vehicle is taxed, now I know where to find out, thank you. But, as you say, when reporting they don’t seem to be interested it makes me annoyed too.