Content

Salford
City Council - Record of Decision
 
I, Councillor Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for
Finance, Support Services & Regeneration, in exercise of the
powers contained within the Council Constitution, do hereby
approve the proposed write-off of
irrecoverable debts as outlined below: -
 
Council Tax £777,489.20.
Housing Benefit Overpayments £13,815.68.
 
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
debts is an essential part of the administration of Council Tax,
Business Rates and Housing Benefit overpayment
accounts.  These write-offs are from
debts from 2004 to the present and a breakdown of net write-offs by
year is at Appendix A to the report. 
The value of these write-offs, which are mainly for arrears debts,
is approximately equivalent to 0.41% of the Council Tax collectable
debit for 2024/2025.
 
The
source of funding is: 
The bad debt
provision
 
Legal Advice
obtained:Supplied by Ashley Marks, Principal
Lawyer:
I have looked at the write-off
report for the period 01-NOV-2024 to 31-JAN-2025 and can confirm
that the specific write-off categories are all clear and cover the
most common scenarios i.e., deceased, absconded, insolvent or
uneconomical to pursue . These are all cases where the best legal
advice would be that the debt be written off as
non-recoverable.
 
Financial Advice
obtained:
Supplied by David Eden, Finance Manager:
There are sufficient provisions
available to cover the cost of the proposed write offs.
 
The
following documents have been used to assist the decision
process:
Lead Member Report.
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:Penny Mitchell
– Service Manager – Council Tax
Email:penny.mitchell@salford.gov.uk
 
The 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.
 
Signed: Councillor Jack
Youd                                   
Date: 25th February 2025
Deputy City Mayor and Lead
Member for Finance, Support Services & Regeneration
                                                                                                                                               
 
This decision was published on
26th February 2025.
 
The decision will come into
force at 4.00pm on 5th March 2025, unless it is
called-in in accordance with the decision-making process
rules.