Rutland County Council has been granted permission to write off debts of totalling £86,585.93, which are considered to be 'unrecoverable'.

Members of the cabinet heard from Conservative Cllr Karen Payne, portfolio holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation, at a meeting on 14 February.

Cllr K Payne said that: "Rutland County Council has a good track record of collecting debt, and in the context of collection rates the level of proposed write off is relatively low. There are a total of nine 'difficult to collect debts', with arrears totalling £40,145.46. In these cases the statutory process has been largely exhausted.

"We are requesting the write off of two debts totalling £8,012.20 as we are unable to trace the debtors, two debts amounting to £6,157.44 whereby the taxpayers have entered into an Individual Voluntary arrangement, and their is no prospect of any dividends being received, and five debts totalling £25,975.82 whereby collection is not viable due to the length of time – 10 to 20 years – that it would take to recover.

"One of our risk areas is around business failure or liquidation. In Rutland we regularly see new ventures struggling to stay in business and often close down. We are requesting the write off for one such case that falls into this category totalling £9,815.53. We are also requesting the write off of one debt of £2,647.61 where recovery action has been exhausted, and it would not be cost effective to pursue the debt further due to legal fees. Lastly, one debt of £3,962.91 where recovery action has been taken, but continued collection is not viable due to the length of time it would take to clear.

"In terms of social care, people are often vulnerable possibly having a learning disability, dementia, or are in and out of hospital. It is often difficult to contact the person to discuss payment, and sometimes family members have to take on managing the person's finances either informally or formally by Power of Attorney. Currently we have 88 cases where there are debts outstanding of over 90 days old. These debts total £297,000. Of those, 41 debts are awaiting probate (£104,000), while we are requesting the write off of three debts totalling £12,639.93."

As many as 82 per cent of Rutland County Council's residents pay by direct debit, which helps keep the council's recovery rate high. However, in 2022/23 council officers are piloting a new recovery tool that will encourage debtors to talk to them to discuss arrears, and help make an arrangement that is affordable before the case is sent to civil enforcement agents for collection.

Members of the cabinet unanimously approved the write of the £86,000 of unrecoverable debts

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