Issue - meetings

Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Finance and Governance.

RESOVLED:

That twenty two irrecoverable debts totalling £170,288.71 (as detailed in annex 1 of the report) be written out of the Council’s accounts.

The Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Finance and Governance, Councillor Schofield, introduced the report which recommended the write-off of 22 debts valued at £170,288. He explained that all possibly recovery action had been taken in each case.

Councillor Schofield, explained that:

·         The Council took debt recovery very seriously. The Council continued to use all the tools the law allows to recover debt until it became impossible, unlawful or uneconomic to do so

·         The impact on the Council when forced to give up on a council tax or business rate debt was a fraction of the total amount

·         Write-off of debts was an accounting process and a book-keeping requirement to protect the Council against misstatement of the accounts

·         The Council remained high performing in regard to debt recovery. The write-offs recommended in the report represented less than one percent of the Council’s annual budget.

In response to a question from a Visiting Member, it was confirmed that two cases related to a benefits overpayment that could not be recovered.

RESOVLED:

That twenty two irrecoverable debts totalling £170,288.71 (as detailed in annex 1 of the report) be written out of the Council’s accounts.