Agenda item

EXCHEQUER SERVICE MONITORING REPORT

Minutes:

Report FSD17003

 

Members considered Liberata’s performance for Exchequer Services from

1st April 2016 to 30th September 2016.

 

For sundry debts there were 3,835 invoices outstanding at 30th September 2016 totalling £7.55m. Of the total amount outstanding, 801 invoices valued at £3.5m(46.35%) had been outstanding for less than 60 days including £3.27m (43.31%) less than 30 days old.

 

Against a full year target collection rate of 91%, the collection rate for in-year debt at 30th September 2016 was 81.09% with income of £20.78m collected. Based upon current performance Liberata was expected to meet the 91% target. Taking account of debts on hold, the adjusted collection rate was 84.27%.

 

For Aged Debt, the combined out-of-year collection was 55.48% at 30th September 2016, 0.5% lower than at 30th September 2015, with recovery impacted by a number of factors e.g. £447k remaining in dispute at 30th September 2016, £340k secured by way of Charging Orders, and £493k recommended for write off. Taking account of debts with recovery action on hold, the collection rate increases to 79.59%, 13.36% higher than at

30th September 2015.

 

For utilities, the total debt was £327k at 30th September 2016 with the largest debt held by British Telecom (98% of the debt being disputed).

 

For sundry invoices, 6,780 sundry invoices to a value of £27m were raised from 1st April 2016 to 30th September 2016 and 794 invoices valued at £1.7m were subsequently cancelled during the same period. Compared to 2015, invoices raised decreased by 18% due to a change in billing for Carelink clients, moving from quarterly invoicing to annual billing each April.  

 

On Trade Waste, the outstanding debt at 30th September 2016 stood at £674k, £80k (10.6%) less than for the previous year. 

 

For Nightly Paid Accommodation charges, the outstanding debt at

30th September 2016 stood at £3.13m for current and former occupiers.

 

A sum of £3.19m was collected from Housing Benefit awards from 1st April 2016 to 30th September 2016, an increase of £245k (8.3%) on the previous year. Between 1st April 2016 and 30th September 2016, £514k was collected in payments from debtors, an increase of £266k (93%) on the previous year.

 

On accounts payable the percentage of undisputed invoices paid within 30 days between 1st April 2016 and 30th September 2016 remained at 99% and the percentage of invoices paid within 20 days increased from 97% in September 2015 to 98% in September 2016.

 

For Financial Assessments and Charging, 89% of Financial Assessments were completed within 10 working days to 30thSeptember 2016 with a 100% target being met for producing a charging file from CareFirst weekly.

 

On Appointee and Deputyship work, a 100% target was metto

30th September 2016 for the referral of applications to a Panel within 14 working days as was a 100% target for raising invoices for charges within two months of the anniversary of a court order.

 

Details were also provided on the number of complaints received since April 2013 split between those justified and those unjustified - the numbers of complaints being relatively low for the range of services provided. 

 

In discussion, reference was made to the amount of debt owed by British Telecom (BT) with significant levels of debt continuing to exist from 2013/14. When next considering the matter, it was hoped to see a marked improvement in payment. There was concern that the Council was paying BT for services when BT was in debt to the Council. The debt would also be more difficult to recover as time passed and it was suggested the matter be escalated to the highest possible level within BT; it was felt that BT should at least be re-paying its debt on account. 

 

It was explained that Liberata liaised with the Council service department on utility debts; the Council’s Exchequer Services team also worked with the service department to help recover payment. Officers would examine the Council’s contract with BT to assess whether payment to BT can be restricted to assist debt recovery. A similar debt problem previously experienced with Thames Water had been solved. It was necessary to invoice BT should a poor standard of highway repair follow any utility works. Utility companies can often dispute claims of poor repair to required standards and debts would not be written-off until it can be proven that repairs had been made good. It was suggested the matter be considered further by the Environment PDS Committee. It was suggested that disputing an incident of poor repair would be much more difficult after four years.

 

Concerning Aged Debt and a sum of £493k which had been recommended for write off, it was necessary for Liberata to evidence that the recovery process had been pursued before write-off action can be considered. Should there be any large amounts within the sum, the Chairman suggested it might be desirable to wait a little longer before writing-off those amounts.

.

RESOLVED that the information contained within Report FSD17003 be noted along with the Liberata letter detailed at Appendix 1 to the report.

 

Supporting documents: