Questions in relation to the operation of your council tax accounts 2000-2008 f.i.r.e

Dear Thurrock Borough Council,
Please can you provide I believe most of these are available in the
CIPFA REPORTS you send each year. Can i have for each year since
2000, listed years. the total number of the following

If you get stuck on any question please just answer what you can
and explain detail of what you can not.

As we are doing a survey please consider other following.
Please use any other format apart from PDF please, text file being
the easiest
If you get stuck on any question please just answer what you can
and explain detail of what you can not.
0 Published successful collection rate
1 What was your opening bad debt provision (as at 1st April )?
1 What was the total value of write offs in (including previous
years)?
2 What is your revised provision of bad debts as at 31 March each
year?
3 What is your collection fund surplus/deficit as at 31st March
2008?
4 Court costs - Amounts raised in 2007-08
5 Total Court costs collected in 2007-08
Costs charged to individual taxpayers for:
6 - issue of summons
7 - liability order

Section A: Council Tax
Council Tax Benefit
8 Total number of recipients of 100% benefit at the time of initial
billing for 2007-08
9 Total number of recipients of other benefit at the time of
initial billing for 2007-08
Section B: National Non-Domestic Rates
Reliefs
10 Number of cases of community amateur sports club relief during
2007-08
11 Number of cases of rural relief during 2007-08
12 Number of cases of hardship relief during 2007-08
13 Number of cases of small business rate relief during 2007-08
14 Number of cases of other relief during 2007-08
Interest Payments
15 Number of interest payment cases during 2007-08
16 Does your authority operate a Business Improvement Development
Scheme (BIDS)?
Section C: Other Information - Council Tax and NNDR Council Tax
General Information Day / Month
17 Due date of first instalment in
18 Number of payment dates offered each month to direct debit
instalment payers
Accounts raised
20a Total number of accounts raised at time of initial billing for
2007-08 (excluding nil bills
20b Total number of nil bills
NB. If you cannot separately identify nil bills please indicate
with a cell reference
21 Number of new bills and adjustment notices issued during the
year

Enforcement

8 Number of reminders issued (including final notices)
9 Number of summonses issued
10 Number of liability orders granted
11 Number of attachment of earnings orders issued
12 Number of applications for deductions from income support
13 Number of cases referred to bailiff to levy distress
14 Number of cased referred to bailiff where goods are removed
15 Number of charging orders
16 Number of committal summonses issued
17 Number of arrest warrants granted
18 Number of committal orders obtained and postponed
19 Number of persons committed to prison and who served a prison
term
20 Number of persons committed to prison but did not serve a prison
term
21 Number of insolvencies commenced by the authority

22 Does your authority pursue criminal prosecution for non-return
of requests of earnings information (council tax only)?
23 Does your authority impose penalties relating to non-provision
of information (council tax only)?
32 - Are rent rebates dealt with by the finance department?
33 Do you use in-house bailiffs?
Software packages used for the provision of the following:
34 Council Tax Northgate
35 NNDR Sedgemoor
36 Council Tax Benefit Northgate

Not part of your cipfa return

40.Cost paid to court each years ( or cost per LO )

41.Total collected by bailiffs
42.An indication as to what the court funds collection accounts
pays for each year
43.An indication to any policy that you have in place to ensure you
protect vulnerable customers from the court action to the bailiffs.
44.Any and all agreed rates and conditions that your instructed
bailiff should maintain.

45. number of bankruptcy actions threatened
46. Number of bankruptcy action gained
47 All other alternate action taken and the number of bills that
tits taken on.

48 An indication as to bonus markers for collection rates for staff

Yours faithfully,

George Cant

Dear Thurrock Borough Council,

Incorrect answer

the questions i asked you form part of you paperwork sent to CIPFa
each year. thats why i asked them, there are some outside of the
scope of the cipfa stuff, but these should come under time
restrictions.

Yours faithfully,

George Cant

Dear Thurrock Borough Council,

I already requested you start this as a corporate complaint due to
the answer.

As you seem to be suggesting that your managers did not know this
when they answered it.

There is no way on earth that your revenue manager does not know
why am asking and i suggest the false responceis more about
protection of wages.

Yours faithfully,

George Cant

Dear Thurrock Borough Council,

For all years that you hold them please.

( it only says 06-07 becasue i coppied them from cipfa reports )

Yours faithfully,

George Cant

Dear Thurrock Borough Council,

46 An indication as to what the court funds collection accounts
pays for each year.

Please can you clarify the question?

Ok, the money raised on liability orders and other actions taken
that a charge is imposed on. the fund for the years 2006 was.
627,000 the court costs of £ 3 per LO comes out of this, what else
does this money pay for.

Yours faithfully,

George Cant