Council writes off £180,000 bad debt

WARRINGTON Borough Council has written off unrecoverable debts totalling more than £180,000 over the past six months.
The bulk of the debts fall under the heading of miscellaneous income – such as commercial rents, adult social care, trade refuse, etc. – and amount to £112,767.64.
But £67,069.66 is made up of housing benefit overpayments and £1,651.54 is council tax.
In total, they amount to 181,488.84.
A report to the council’s audit and corporate governance committee the benefits and exchequer service is responsible for the billing, collection and recovery of most of the council’s income.
Annually, this includes £86 million in council tax, £108 million in business rates, £58 million in miscellaneous income and £2.07 million in housing benefit overpayments.
The report by revenues manager Gale Magrath, says: “The service’s collection performance is extremely good, however, there are occasions where we are unable to pursue an outstanding debt an further.
“This could occur for a numbers of reasons – the person owing the debt has passed away, or has left the borough without trace, or the debt is no longer economically viable to pursue.”
Debts are referred to the chief finance officer periodically, with a recommendation to write them off – but only after all avenues of recovery have been exhausted.
Referrals are only made with the approval of an assistant director from the directorate where the debt originated.