Agenda item

To consider the updated Corporate Debt Recovery Policy and new Write-off Policy and recommend them to Cabinet for approval.

The committee considered the report in the agenda (copy attached to the official minutes).

Mrs Belenger introduced the report, drawing members’ attention to one of the actions from the Estates report at the last meeting which was to develop a Write-off Policy hence this report which included an amended Corporate Debt Recovery Policy. This was a coordinated approach to dealing with those who had debts with the Council, specifically those who had multiple debts. This debt recovery policy had been updated and the Communities team had been consulted for their views on financial inclusion and to incorporate a definition of a ‘vulnerable person’. The policy contained minor procedural changes and governance arrangements but no changes of a financial management nature.

The Constitution sets out the delegation to the Head of Finance & Governance (Section 151 officer) to write off any debts considered to be irrecoverable. The write off policy was setting out a scheme of delegation agreed by the Head of Finance & Governance which allows specific officers to write off smaller irrecoverable debts. The Write-off Policy sets out what determines a justifiable reason to write off an irrecoverable debt and the procedure to manage this process.

The Corporate Debt Recovery Policy with track changes was available to those who wanted to refer to it.

Corporate debt Policy

·         Some members thought that there was a lack of clarity as a policy document and suggested that the primary aim on page 10 could be made clearer by perhaps being set out under four headings e.g. promptness, fairness, facilitating process and a coordinated approach.

·         More information on financial inclusion would be included from colleagues when their work on this is finalised. A light touch approach had been carried out this time and further amendments would be included with the next review of the policy.

·         Page 11, third para under Arrangements for repayment of arrears - the ‘consequences with a view to minimising the effects’ section to be reworded slightly to read ‘the potential consequences of non-payment of the debt’.

·         Page 11 - the final bullet point should be split into two.

·         An annual report on write-offs is published to the modern.gov library.

·         Accountancy assess the adequacy of the bad debt provisions required for debts owed to the council, such as housing benefit overpayments during the budget cycle and final accounts processes. The top 10 debtors of the Council are reported to Mr Ward as S151 Officer and aged debts reports are looked at on a quarterly basis.

·         It is not down to the service to approve a write off as it is the Revenue  recovery teams view to recommend any write offs to Mr Ward after consultation with the Exchequer and Legal Services. Council Tax and Business Rates debts are considered by the Revenues Manager. All write-offs under the scheme of delegation will be reported to Mr Ward who will have oversight of the entire process.

·         Page 14 – amend ‘people who appear to have mental health issues…’ to ‘people who may have mental health issues…’ 

·         Include details of the Council’s outstanding debt which would give an indication of the amount of effort we should be spending on getting the policy right and the trends as well as details of those who are writing the debt off.

Write-off Policy

·         The Council’s normal invoicing and reminder procedure includes a trigger to alert the service area that service provision should be stopped due to non-payment of  invoice(s)  e.g. trade waste. The Revenue Recovery team, in liaison with legal services, will take each circumstance into account when determining whether a debt will be re-instated, including grounds of vulnerability.

·         Page 18 - add a definition of irrecoverable debts and the procedure in relation to writing off.

·         We do not currently compare ourselves with other local authorities in respect of write-offs as this would depend on which services other authorities may offer. However this would be considered.

·         The Community Services team liaises with outside agencies to offer support to vulnerable people. The Citizens Advice Bureau has a good practice guide which has been taken into account in the preparation of this document.

·         As a corporate body we share information on debts as appropriate between services internally and there is no data protection issue as we do not share this information externally.

·         We distinguish between those who are unwilling to pay and those who are unable to pay. We use tracing agencies when we have exhausted all avenues and write off the debt if it is deemed irrecoverable. If the absconder is subsequently traced we would make a decision as to whether to reinstate the debt if it was still within the time limit.

·         Request to include the reasons for the debt write off in reporting to Mr Ward.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET

That, subject to the inclusion of the amendments raised above, the updated Corporate Debt Recovery Policy and the Write-off Policy be approved.