No apologies for absence.

The minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 18 November 2024 were signed by the Chair.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Head of Revenues & Benefits gave a verbal update on recent work of the Revenues & Benefits Services to the Committee:

• At the end of February, Council Tax collection for the current financial year stood at 94.18% which was around 0.02% lower than at this point last year

• Business rates collection stood at 96.55% which was 1.84% lower than the previous year. The collection rate demonstrated how volatile business rates were and how sensitive it was to changes made by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), such as the introduction of new properties/splits/mergers. The month before, collection was 1.78% up on the previous year and the Head of Revenues & Benefits predicted that the position would recover before the end of the financial year

• However, for the next financial year the area to monitor would be business rates in respect of businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sector. They currently received a 75% reduction which reduced to 40% (up to a cap of £110k per year) from 01^st April 2025

• Activity was ongoing to collect outstanding balances from previous years, the team had reduced Council Tax arrears by just under £2million as at the end of February

• In respect of Business Rates, the team had received some recent retrospective changes from the VOA, which increased the amount outstanding for previous years. The outstanding balance had reduced by around £120,000 since April

• Within the benefits team, the migration of the working age caseload to Universal Credit continued and, as at the end of February, there were just over 2,400 Housing benefit cases, which was a reduction of around 600 cases since March 2024. Claims for supported and temporary accommodation would continue to be dealt with. Those claims tended to be more complicated and took longer to process as it took longer to gather all the evidence and conduct an assessment 

• Although the housing benefit caseload had reduced, residents on UC may still be entitled to a Council Tax Reduction, the team had seen an increase in the CTRS caseload by around 200 cases as at the end of February, compared to March 2024

• The recent focus for the team had been annual billing, ensuring accounts were up to date, with relevant reliefs applied so that correct bills could be issued

• The issuing of new bills tended to be the prompt for council taxpayers to notify the Council of any change in circumstances, so processing those incoming changes would be the next priority. It was also the time of year within benefits where the team received notification of increases such as rents and private pensions

The Head of Revenues & Benefits fielded questions from Members and explained that:

• The team were awaiting further detail surrounding the latest government announcements on welfare cuts, once that detail was received a full assessment would be undertaken but Member noted that the Council did not administer the benefits that were being cut. However, when residents’ circumstances changed, those changes had to be taken into account when administering the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The Committee was presented with an update against the Performance Management Framework, as introduced within the Council’s Corporate Plan, for Quarter Three 2024-25 (October to December 2024).

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) advised that the report was for information only and highlighted key areas from the report:-

• PI 60 Average processing time for New Housing benefit claims –  in quarter three, there had been an improvement in turnaround days from 19 to 17.9 days which compared favourably with the Council’s target of 20 days. Since the report was written, the latest performance at a national level had been published and as at  the end of quarter two (September 2024) both the national average and Kent Districts average was 21 days 

• PI 61 Average processing time for change of circumstance in Housing Benefit claims – in quarter three, there had been a slight improvement from 3.8 to 3.6 days which compared favourably with the performance at a national level of 8 days and other Kent Districts average being 9 days

• PI 62 Average processing time for New Council Tax Reduction scheme (CTRS) claims –  in quarter three, there had been an improvement in turnaround days from 24.9 to 22 days which remained outside of the Council’s target of 20 days There had been signs of continuing improvement during February showing an average of 15.2 days. The year to date was now 21 days

• PI 63 - Average processing time for change of circumstance in CTRS claims, in quarter three, performance remained strong at 2 days which was well below the target of 5 days. The year to date was now 1.9 days

• PI 68 (Page 16) % of agreed internal audit actions implemented – The indicator related to the number of agreed internal audit actions implemented and fluctuated  dependent upon the number that become due. The total number of recommendations due for implementation by the end of December 2024 was 51, 44 of which had been implemented, giving an outturn of 86.3%. As of today, there was 83.3% implemented for those due by 31 December

• Internal audit plan delivery stood at 50% with a further 43% underway which was largely due to the impact on the services resources; a new member of staff was due to join the team imminently

• In terms of counter fraud activity, a brief outline of results for Q3 had been provided but as of today, 110 investigations had been concluded since 01 April, leading to cashable savings of £107,181, which was made up of additional council tax, and notional savings of £97,000 linked to the recovery of a council property, and the removal of an individual from the housing waiting list due to falsified information being provided

• Both vacancies in the team had been filled resulting in full capacity.

• PI 69 (Page 17) % of information requests completed within statutory deadline – The indicator had greatly improved in the last quarter, rising to 95% which was within the statutory deadline of 20 working days and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.