Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Education presented a report on the performance during the final quarter of the 2011/12 financial year (January - March 2012 2011) in respect of the debt management function carried out by the Revenues and Benefits Service within Elevate East London, together with details of the debts written-off as uncollectable during the period and comparable information from the previous financial year.

In response to issues raised by the Cabinet Member for Housing at the meeting on 20 March 2012 in relation to eviction levels, the Corporate Director of Housing and Environment advised that he had reviewed internal processes and now personally approved all eviction requests.  The Corporate Director also advised on the financial implications associated with evictions.

The Cabinet Member for Customer Services and Human Resources referred to the performance data provided by Elevate East London and the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources confirmed that the data was verified by the Council’s client service.

Cabinet agreed:

  (i)  To note the contents of the report as it related to the performance of the debt management function carried out by the Revenues and Benefits Service operated by Elevate East London including the performance of bailiffs; and

  (ii)  To note the debt write-offs for the fourth quarter of 2011/12 and that a number of those debts would be publicised in accordance with the policy agreed by Minute 69 (6 November 2007) (the debts to be published are those with the highest value for which publication is not prevented by the criteria set out in paragraph 2.53 of the report).