Issue - meetings

The report of the Head of Partnership

Mrs S O’Hanlon presented the report to Members. She advised that the purpose of the report was to bring to Members attention the work that was being carried out. She informed the Members that the protocol had been developed with the LGA and the aim was to prevent people from getting into debt in the first place however they had to be mindful that the authority still had a duty to recover Council Tax. She stated that senior officers had met with the CAB, which was a productive meeting as it had extended the relationship and provided some context of the process of Council Tax recovery. She advised that the document set out details of the protocol and was now with and the document was now with the Chief Executive of CAB for review. She informed Members that at the time of reporting on 61 authorities had signed up and hopefully the partnership would be the trailblazers for Leicestershire.

In response to a question from Councillor C Ladkin, Mrs S O’Hanlon advised that it was hoped that residents that were struggling with Council Tax payments would present themselves to the relevant authority first however there were those that had more complex debts and therefore would go to CAB for support.

Mrs S O’Hanlon advised Members that there was only the one CAB for Leicestershire but there were support officers that worked out of each of the three authorities. She informed Members that there was other bodies but due to the locality, residents would be sign posted to the CAB

RESOLVED THAT:

The work carried out by the Partnership be noted.