The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Almost a quarter of a million pounds in debts to South Holland District Council has been written off in this financial year alone.
The £240,186.29 is made up of council tax and business rates plus former tenant arrears and housing benefit overpayments.
However, the total is just a tiny percentage of the overall amount for which the council is responsible for collecting.
Almost two-thirds of the amount written off so far in 2014/15 is business rates.
The latest amounts written off include £15,067.48 of council tax. That took the total to £27,585.91 – just 0.09 per cent of the 2014/15 collectable amount.
And the latest £14,180.07 in business rates written off makes it £178,875.10 so far this financial year – 0.67 per cent of the total collectable.
The other amounts were £2,349.82 in former tenant arrears (total year to date £9,509.27) and £3,648.08 (£10,567.93).
A South Holland District Council spokesman told The Voice: “The details of the debtors will not be released, for a number of reasons.
“These include potentially putting individuals or families at risk if details of last known address are publicised, also there may be extenuating circumstances which would mean the disclosure was unwarranted.
“We also take into account the permanent nature of electronic publication being such that any mistakes are not easily rectified.
“The public section of the report does contain detailed and accurate financial information.
“The proportionally low levels of write-offs illustrate the council’s considerable success in securing payments due and write-off of debt is always a measure of last resort (driven by complex accountancy requirements around the definition of “collectable debt” carried on the books).”
The running total compares with £447,913.93 for the whole of 2013/14.
