Tamworth Borough Council to write off £350k debt
The debt is being described as irrecoverable
A Staffordshire council has agreed to write off more than £350,000 in ‘irrecoverable debt’. Tamworth Borough Council says it views write offs as exceptions and states they are committed to taking all steps to collect all debt.
The debt, from the period 1 April to 30 September, which totals £378,401.50 is made up from council tax, business rates and housing benefit overpayments. There are various reasons the council has decided to scrap the debt including the debt being statute barred, the council being unable to locate the person and it not being financially viable.
Five areas have had debt written of including, council tax £30,752.90; business rates £226,123.89; sundry income £38,829.54; housing benefit overpayments £18,327.91; and housing £64,367.26.
A report to council leaders states: “The council is committed to ensuring that debt write offs are kept to a minimum by taking all reasonable steps to collect monies due. There will be situations where the debt recovery process fails to recover some or all of the debt and will need to be considered for write off in accordance with the schemes of delegation prescribed in the Corporate Credit Policy.
“The Council views such cases very much as exceptions. Before writing off debt, the council will satisfy itself that all reasonable steps have been taken to collect it and that no further recovery action is possible or practicable. It will take into account the age, size and types of debt together with any factors that it feels are relevant to the individual case.”
Councillor Lewis Smith said: “Everytime I looked at the write offs when we were first coming into council I was always shocked at the amount that we’re having to write off and I’m sure members of the public who don’t necessarily engage with it all that often look at this and think what are we doing letting go at this amount of money.
“It is worth mentioning that this is debt that we either can’t collect due to deaths, due to businesses closing or it would be more expensive for us to try and chase those debts. So it’s worth our time writing it off.”