Agenda item

Quarter 3 Write Off of Debts Report

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the quarterly monitoring report concerning write offs in the third quarter of 2012/13 and highlighted the following salient points:

 

·         £213,502 of Council tax had had to be included in write offs for the period 1st April 2012 – 31st December 2012.  This included £7,861 classified as “statute barred”, which applied to outstanding debts that had not been paid after six years had lapsed, and £23,348 classified as “uneconomical to pursue”, which related to debts valued at a relatively small level.

·         £400,731 of unpaid non-domestic rates, mainly due from companies that had ceased trading, had also been included in the Council’s write offs.

·         A significant portion of the unpaid debts from sundry debtors were unpaid car parking fines.  When determining whether to write off these fines Officers considered the amount owed by an individual and how much it would cost the Council to recoup the debt.

·         Part paid debts from sundry debtors, valued at £8,299.49 had been written off.  These largely comprised funds that had been provided in the rent support scheme, which helped people into accommodation, which had not been paid back.  To minimise the potential for similar problems in future years a review of the scheme would be carried out.

·         Sundry debts of £633,895.79 had been due on 31st December 2012.  The invoices for garden waste collections had been issued shortly before this date which had influenced the figures.  The majority of customers had paid for their garden waste collection service by March 2013.

·         Officers had been in contact with local companies to find out whether bespoke payment arrangements could be negotiated in order to enable those businesses to pay outstanding non-domestic rate arrears.

·         The Council had written off £46,956.26 in overpaid housing benefit during the period.  Members were advised that generally, overpayments had been made in cases where individuals had secured employment but had failed to declare their employment status immediately or in cases where the individual had moved away from the area.

 

An internal audit report that had recently been presented to the Audit Board on the subject of sundry debts was discussed by Members during consideration of this item.  The report had contained a number of appendices, including confidential appendices, on the subject of those debts.  The reasons why these appendices had been considered in confidential session were discussed and Members debated whether the entire report should have been made available for the Board’s consideration alongside the quarterly update report.

 

Some Members believed the report contain pertinent information which could have facilitated scrutiny of the subject.  However, the Board was advised that the report had already been considered by the Council’s Audit Board, which had responsibility for considering information on this subject.  In this context Members were advised that the role of the Overview and Scrutiny Board was to consider the Council’s policy in relation to the matter as well as the level of debts overall that had been written off by the Council.

 

RESOLVED that the report on the Quarterly Monitoring of Write Offs for the period 1st April – 31st December 2012 be noted.

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