Wolverhampton Council to write off nearly £2m in debts

Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet is set to sign off on plans to clear £1.9m in debts including sundry debtors, unpaid council tax, housing benefit overpayments and non-domestic rates.

More than 80 per cent of the debt has been written off by the council’s director for finance, according to the cabinet report.

The city council's cabinet will meet on Wednesday (June 11) to approve writing off around £300,000 worth of debt.

The cabinet report shows the council’s cabinet will be asked to approve £45,000 of the £843,805 in council tax debts and nearly half of the £13,000 overpaid in housing benefits.

As much as £192,000 of the £552,000 to be written off in non-domestic rates will also require the approval of cabinet.

Councillor Louise Miles, cabinet member for resources, said: “The council will only write off debts when all possible action to recover it has been taken and exhausted.

“Examples include where the customer is deceased with no funds in their estate, where the customer or business is insolvent or where legal action is unlikely to be successful.

“In such cases, identifying and writing off irrecoverable debts is seen as good financial management and can save the taxpayer further money.

“The majority of the debts being written off are historic.

“The council’s overall collection rates for of council tax, business rates and other payments owed are between 97 and 98 per cent.”

The council said 84 per cent of the council tax being written off was historic and mostly from between 2015 and 2022. Nearly half of the business rates debt being written off was from between 2012 and 2022 and 94 per cent of sundry debts were also ‘historic’.

The overall collection rates were 98 per cent for council tax, 99 per cent for business rates and 97 per cent for sundry debts, the council added.