Agenda item

The Committee to consider an overview of Council Tax and West Northamptonshire Council’s approaches to collection and recovery, in the context of the Anti-Poverty Strategy.

The Chair commented that the agenda item was intended to enable the Committee to consider WNC’s approaches to Council Tax collection and recovery in the context of the Anti-Poverty Strategy and the impact of debt on individual wellbeing.

The Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits and Interim Revenues and Benefits Manager presented the report and highlighted the following points:

·         WNC’s approach to Council Tax collection needed to reflect that Council Tax paid for vital local services.

·         WNC aimed for a 98% collection rate. It had achieved just under 97% last year, which was a significant improvement on the previous year and was above the national average. 

·         There was a hierarchy of liability for Council Tax and WNC applied discounts or exemptions where individuals met criteria to qualify for this.

·         WNC sought to avoid using court processes to recover Council Tax as far as possible due to the extra cost to the customer this involved.

·         WNC had a vulnerable person’s policy that it followed when considering how to approach recovery action or whether an individual may require some support in paying Council Tax. Options for assistance included Council Tax reduction and Council Tax hardship payments. Hardship payments were discretionary. WNC had a £500K budget provision for this purpose at vesting day, which had since reduced and could benefit from being topped up again. Sources of advice included the WNC debt and money advice service and the voluntary sector.

The Committee considered the report, asked questions and had discussion as follows:

·         Members raised concern that in a scenario where a resident chose to pay Council Tax on the first day of the month this could result in a quicker court summons for non-payment compared to a payment date at the end of the month.

·         Members asked how long the Council Tax reduction scheme process took to come into effect. The Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits advised that the aim was to process as quickly as possible but there were some incomplete applications which caused delays. There was also a month allocated for individuals to complete the application.

·         Members praised the revenues and benefits service and the Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits for her hard work and excellent response time to queries from councillors.

·         Members discussed support for those in debt and asked if there was a dedicated phone line for debt advice for residents who needed help. The Assistant Director Revenues and Benefits urged that residents in need should contact WNC as soon as they could. The debt and money advice service would be key in future as it would have a direct line and would link up with the Council Tax tea. It would be a confidential free service for residents. 

·         Members suggested that they could assist in reviewing the language used in letters relating to Council Tax sent out to residents to ensure that these informed people about sources of support.

·         Members emphasised the benefit of Council Tax hardship payments and the potential for demand to increase in future. It was proposed that the Committee should recommend to the Cabinet the need to top up the existing budget provision. The Committee noted that this matter might be raised through the current budget scrutiny process in the first instance. This would not prevent a recommendation from subsequently being made to the Cabinet.

RESOLVED: That the Adult Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

a)    Recommended that Committee members be involved in reviewing the language used in standard letters relating to Council Tax sent to residents to identify any opportunities for improvement including in relation to informing residents about support services. 

b)   Recommended the need to secure the future of the Council Tax hardship payments scheme and agreed to highlight this matter to the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny so that it can be raised as part of the current budget scrutiny review.