Council writes off more than £200,000 worth of debts this year

A COUNCIL has written off more than £200,000 worth of debt so far this year.

Torfaen County Borough Council has written off £209,598.37 worth of debt.

A report, which outlines the decision to approve the write-off, says that all appropriate attempts to recover the debt have been made.

The highest proportion of debt that was written-off came from business rates.

A total of £74,838.71 has been written-off as a result of outstanding charges from business rates. However, £53,363.11 is as a direct result of businesses which are going through insolvency proceedings.

The report states: “The current write-off is in respect of debts that cover previous years so this must be balanced against the debt that has been raised as it represents 1% of the total debit raised.”

More than 20% of the debt writen-off is in relation to council tax.

Torfaen council has written-off £45,856.29 in relation to outstanding charges.

The report says council tax debts cover previous years and must be balanced against the debt that has been raised.

“In order to fairly reflect the commitment of taxpayers and staff it is appropriate to consider that the total write-offs to date is 0.3% of the total debit raised,” it says.

A total of £43,137.46 worth of housing benefit overpayments have been written-off.

The report states overpayments generally arise as a result of failures to notify the authority of changes in circumstances or fraudulent activity.

Of the housing benefit sum, £33,000 cannot be collected because the individual has died.

The write-off represents 0.26% of the annual housing benefit awards.

The rest is made up of various other kinds of debts, labelled as sundry, which total £45,765.91.

Sundry debts tend to be smaller and can be issued for a variety of reasons for by number of different services, including education, social care housing and resources.