The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
More than a quarter of a million pounds in uncollected debts has been written off by South Holland District Council.
The council’s cabinet agreed to write off debts totalling £264,994.37, which have “no realistic prospects of recovery,” at a meeting on January 10.
A council spokesman said: “The council is responsible for the collection of over £85million in revenue in a financial year.
“The individual accounts involved span a number of financial years, however in the context of a single financial year, the write off value represents just 0.3 per cent of overall collectable debit.
“The vast majority of residents in the district pay their bills on time and the council has robust processes in place for pursuing late or non-payers.”
A report before councillors said: “All debts approved for write-off will be set against the existing bad debt provisions and they can be resurrected in full or in part at any time should new information come to light suggesting that they may be recoverable after all.
“In every case, we believe that all collection options have been exhausted and that there are now no realistic prospects of recovery.”
The amount included almost £160,000 of business rates, £44,000 of council tax, almost £19,000 of former rent arrears, almost £27,000 of housing benefit overpayments and £15,000 of sundry debt.
Details of the individual debtors will not be revealed publicly.
The report added: “The need to write off debt usually arises due to the debtor being untraceable, insolvent, ceased trading with no assets or deceased with insufficient funds in the estate.
“Where possible all methods of recovery are pursued before making the decision to write off. This can include internal recovery action, use of debt collection agents, external tracing agents and procedures through the courts.”
The last time cabinet was asked to write off debts was in July 2015 – an amount of £39,875. The previous October an amount of £240,186 was written off.
