Debt Recovery Guidance for council tax, business rates and sundry debts

Purpose

The Debt Recovery Guidance will ensure that all the procedures for debt recovery are provided consistently, fairly and in a timely manner.

This Guidance will act as a general guide for all Council Officers involved in the collection of income and the recovery of debts. It is to be used in conjunction with more detailed procedural guidance as developed by the individual Service Plans, complying also with changes in ethical best practice and legislative requirements.

The policy will be reviewed annually and updated if necessary.

Executive summary

The Council has a duty to ensure that the debt collection and recovery service is provided economically, efficiently and effectively.

Key elements to achieving this position:

• recognising the impact that uncollected debts have on revenue funding and cash flow; a high level of debt balance means that less cash is available to deliver front line services - this could also lead to the need to increase funding from council tax
• managing its debt balances by improving the efficiency of its income collection - this means looking beyond recovering existing debts to preventing the debts from occurring
• ensuring that the assets of the Council are not artificially inflated by bad debts - it provides for the recovery of arrears to be maximised and that irrecoverable debts are written off
• valuing the consistent and fair treatment of its customers and embedding the principles of equality and diversity across all its services