Wolverhampton Council wipes £750k in council tax and business rate debts
Nearly £750,000 in debt has been written off by council bosses in Wolverhampton.
Councillors at Tuesday's Wolverhampton Council cabinet resources panel meeting approved to write off the 632 council tax debts, as well as 82 non-domestic rate debts.
The authority's director of finance had already wrote off more than £300,000 in council tax debts, but due to four of the debts adding up to more than £5,000 they had to receive approval from the panel. The four debts were valued at £27,623.83.
While nearly £320,000 in debts for non-domestic rates had already been written off – a further nine debts valued at £85,990.09 required approval by the panel.
'Exhausted'
A spokesman for Wolverhampton Council said that the debts would only be written off after "every possible avenue has been exhausted".
Speaking during Tuesday's meeting, cabinet member for resources Councillor Louise Miles, who is also chairman for the cabinet resources panel, said: "We are always very cautious around write offs. We are as a council under a legal obligation to bring in as much money for the council as possible and so these are always subject to considerable scrutiny."
A Wolverhampton Council spokesman added: "Our recovery teams work tirelessly for as long as it takes to ensure people pay what they owe.
"Sometimes it can take several years to recover a debt, but we would never give up unless every possible avenue has been exhausted.
'Bankruptcy'
"Write-offs are a last resort but there will be instances where there is no other option, for example in the case of bankruptcy.”
The debt write-offs were all approved by the councillors on the panel, as part of a revenue budget monitoring report.
It comes as the authority announced it would crack down on residents trying to cheat the system through a new pilot scheme, which aims to help them recover unpaid council tax. The new powers mean non-paying residents who are employed, or have an income, will be contacted first before their debt is deducted directly for their earnings through their employer.
The authority was chosen to take part in the HM Revenues & Customs trial, which allows them to use new debt information-sharing powers introduced by the Digital Economy Act 2017.
