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Council writes off nearly £2m of debt as ‘unrecoverable’

Aberdeen City Council has written off nearly £2 million.

Nearly £2 million of debt – including parking fines, rent and council tax – was written off by city council officials last year, new documents show.

Aberdeen City Council finance chiefs gave up chasing £1,838,197.10, which also included fines for driving in bus lanes and housing benefit overpayments, in 2020/21.

Built-up over several years, the local authority’s sheriff officers decided more than 11,000 debts were not worth chasing up after they had used all the avenues open to them.

If the council had been able to recover the debt, it could have paid for 66 teachers, 88 environmental health officers or 53 social workers.

Debt ‘relates to previous years’

However, the local authority said the loss of the cash will not have an impact on its financial performance as allowances are made for money that cannot be recovered.

“It must be emphasised that prior to completing the list, full advice, where appropriate, has been received from the council’s debt recovery agents in determining that debts are indeed unrecoverable,” a report submitted to the council reads.

“The sums mostly relate to previous years where all approved recovery procedures have been followed.

“Full bad debt provision has been made in the accounts.”

Council can restart action

There are a number of reasons a debt could be considered unrecoverable and written off by the council.

The person who owes the money may have passed away, they may have been declared bankrupt or they may not have any assets in order to reclaim the debt.

In other situations, such as in the case of the majority of traffic offences, the council may simply have been unable to trace the person who owes the money.

However, if the cash does become recoverable in the future, it is able to restart action so the money can be paid.