Council writes-off bad debts

The Comhairle is to write off about £353,000 of bad debts.

The money is owed to the council by people and businesses for council tax, business rates, housing benefit overpayments and other unpaid invoices for services.

The council regularly chases up debtors but in some cases are unsuccessful because people cannot be traced, have died without assets, or the debts are uneconomical to collect.

So far in 2014-15, around £311,000 of bad debt has been written off with about a third resulting from the sequestration of individuals and companies.

In addition, a mass collection of small debts - dating from 2009 - totalling over a further £42,000 is also deemed irrecoverable.

Council writes-off over third of a million pounds bad debt

8 February 2015