Agenda item

The Committee will consider a briefing report on the revenues and benefits collection and arrears performance. The report also updates on the project to implement a single revenue and benefits system for the Council.

Contributors:

Councillor John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing & Resources

David Skinner, Service Director for Finance (Section 151 Officer)

Clive Jones, Head of Revenue & Benefits

Papers:

Revenues and Benefits report

The Chairman invited the Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing and Resources, Councillor J Chilver, to introduce the report. In the Cabinet Member’s presentation, the following points were highlighted:

·       The report outlined that the Council Tax collection rates compared favourably with other local authorities. Business rates had decreased slightly due to Covid but had recovered. Around £650m per year was collected on Council Tax and Business Rates. 

·       The second project outlined was the consolidation of connecting the revenue and benefits networks across the legacy authorities. The Wycombe and Aylesbury systems had been merged last year, with direct debits increasing over 1.5%. The Chiltern and South Bucks system closed in September 2022. There were some technological challenges in merging live databases and a significant amount of transactions that had to be maintained whilst the systems were updated. The data showed that the variability in business rates collections between the different legacy areas reflected the area demographics. There had been a performance improvement in Wycombe between 2021 and 2022, primarily due to the business rates managers’ expertise. The single system project was expected to deliver around £750,000 in savings. The system was also subject to an overall project governance framework, chaired by the Head of Revenues and Benefits. Wider aspects such as customer service, communication and resources were also considered. There was a clear communications plan which encouraged residents facing hardship to contact the Council for support needed to avoid debt; nine emergency payments had been paid to Chiltern & South Bucks residents since August. The team had also examined the challenges faced by Durham and Wiltshire authorities who had undergone a similar project, as well as the lessons learnt from Phase 1, to ensure the best possible outcome for residents.

·       The arrears position nationally had dramatically increased over the past few years, as had the timeframe to recover from enforcement action. The total cumulative arrears were only a small percentage of the £650m collected annually. The Council also applied a rigorous write off process in line with finance procedures. Write offs were only authorised in limited circumstances, such as insolvency or unenforceability due to location.

The following points were noted during the Committee’s discussion:

·       The Council did not sell unrecoverable debt as there was a good track record of collection, however this would be kept under review. Collection rates were higher than in the previous year, though the changing economic position could impact this. The overall target for collection rates was expected to be met in this financial year. The team also ensured that due process was followed  for issuing reminders and notices, resulting in strong collection rates before proceeding to court. Work was also carried out with the financial insecurities partnership and the Helping Hand scheme to signpost residents towards assistance programmes.

·       A Member suggested that the data could be analysed in more depth to better understand the reasons for not receiving payments. Whilst this would be ideal, currently this would not be possible due to the different systems in place but may be considered in the future.

·       The lower collection rates in the South Bucks area may be attributed to the historic resource model of an outsourced team with a combined management structure. This had been brought back in-house. The Chiltern area had the highest direct debit take-up, and the Aylesbury and Wycombe areas had experienced a 1.5% increase in direct debit take-up.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for the report.