Issue - meetings

Committee is asked to:

Approve the Sundry Debt write-offs set out in Appendix 1 amounting to £383,095, of which £373,834 relates to Housing Benefits overpayments (offset by Housing Benefit Bad Debt Provision on balance sheet in the sum of £2,879,952 as at March 31 2023).

The Committee considered a report that sought approval for the write-off of outstanding sundry debts.

The Committee were advised that £373,834 of the total amount to be written off related to Housing Benefits overpayments but that this sum was offset by the Housing Benefit Bad Debt Provision.

Lack of adequate resources were cited as one of the reasons that some of these historic debts were on the write-offs list but last year a proper level of resource was put in place to recover ongoing debts. The Committee were advised that there were only certain types of recovery that could be used and that no debt would be recommended for write-off until they had all been exhausted.

The Committee queried whether there were any Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in respect of debt recovery. The Group Head of Commissioning and Transformation advised that currently individual departments within the Council had their own KPIs but work was to commence on unifying these across the Council. The committee requested that a robust debt recovery procedure be produced and implemented across the Council.

Reports would be brought to the committee on a regular basis that would provide up to date figures in respect of outstanding balances that were subject to debt recovery. The report would outline both the amounts and the measures taken to recover the outstanding balances.

The Chair asked for a timeline to reflect the update on the Council wide KIPIs for debt recovery and the implementation of a revised recovery measures procedure. The Group Head of Commissioning and Transformation advised that she would provide this at the next meeting of this committee.

The Committee resolved to:

Approve the Sundry Debt Write Offs set out in the report, amounting to £383,095 of which £373,834 relates to Housing Benefits overpayments (offset by Housing Benefit Bad Debt Provision on balance sheet of £2,79,952 at 31 March 2023).