Agenda and decisions

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

I, Councillor Hinds, Lead Member for Finance and Support Services, in exercise of the powers contained within the Council Constitution, do hereby:

Approve the write off of Sundry Debt to the value of £33,504.63. 

The Reasons are that these sundry debts, after exhaustive attempts to collect, are found to be irrecoverable for a variety of reasons e.g. liquidation, absconded, no longer trading, bankrupt, deceased, uneconomical to collect, and irrecoverable after court action etc .

Options considered and rejected were - Not relevant due to the nature (age and value) of these accounts. The majority of accounts relate to those proven uneconomical to collect, irrecoverable after court action, bankruptcy / liquidation.

Assessment of Risk - Low

The source of funding is the Council’s bad debt provision.

Legal Advice obtained – legal advice has been obtained on each of the individual cases where court action has been taken.

Financial Advice obtained - Chris Hesketh

There is adequate provision for the sundry debt write offs from the council’s provision for bad debt. The provision is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that the provision is set at an appropriate level.

Procurement Advice obtained – Not applicable.

The following documents have been used to assist the decision process - The relevant documents contain exempt or confidential information and are not available for public inspection. The background documents would provide the identity of individuals or companies involved in the write off.

Contact Officer: Chris Hesketh                 Tel No. 0161 793 2668

This decision is not subject to consideration by another Lead Member.

The appropriate scrutiny panel to call-in the decision is the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

This decision was published on 2^nd July 2019.

This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 9^th July 2019, unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

I, Councillor Hinds,  Lead Member for Finance and Support Services, in exercise of the powers contained within the Council Constitution, do herby approve the proposed write-off of irrecoverable debts as outlined below: -

                                                                           £

Council Tax                                               1,996,475.39

Business Rates                                         1,635,261.95

Housing Benefit Overpayments                     45,829.56

The Reasons are:  The liabilities mentioned in the report for write-off are irrecoverable.

Options considered and rejected were:  To leave outstanding amounts on the accounts for a further period.

Assessment of Risk:  The write-off of irrecoverable amounts is an essential part of account administration.

The source of funding is: The bad debt provision.

Legal Advice obtained: N/A

Financial Advice obtained:  The bad debt provision has been confirmed.

The following documents have been used to assist the decision process.

Some of the relevant documents contain exempt or confidential information and are not available for public inspection
Other documents which are in the public domain are the relevant write-off strategies

Contact Officer: Steven Fry – Head of Customer Services

This decision is not subject to consideration by another Lead Member.   

The appropriate scrutiny panel to call-in the decision is the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

FOR COMMITTEE SERVICES USE ONLY

This decision was published on 2^nd July 2019.

This decision will come in force at 4.00pm on 9^th July 2019, unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.