Administrative cost of Council Tax reduction scheme and introduction of the 'Bedroom Tax'

The request was partially successful.

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

How much of the additional £339,850 court costs raised in the 2013/14 tax year (compared with 2012/13) from the extra 4,855 summonses issued because of changes to Council Tax Benefit and introduction of the 'Bedroom Tax' has covered the budget needed to fund new expenditure for additional administration and/or administrative changes?

for example;

Designing and modelling schemes

Communicating changes

Consulting with local residents

Paying IT suppliers

Setting up a system for appeals

Yours faithfully,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 7552_1415.

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

I'm at a loss to know where I came by the figures in my original email, but it seems on checking the data, the following is correct and should substitute the request:

How much of the additional £442,050 court costs raised in the 2013/14 tax year (compared with 2012/13) from the extra 6,315 summonses issued because of changes to Council Tax Benefit and introduction of the 'Bedroom Tax' has covered the budget needed to fund new expenditure for additional administration and/or administrative changes?

for example;

Designing and modelling schemes

Communicating changes

Consulting with local residents

Paying IT suppliers

Setting up a system for appeals

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear R Suggitt

Thank you for your revised information request 7552-1415, which asked

How much of the additional £442,050 court costs raised in the 2013/14 tax year (compared with 2012/13) from the extra 6,315 summonses issued because of changes to Council Tax Benefit and introduction of the 'Bedroom Tax' has covered the budget needed to fund new expenditure for additional administration and/or administrative changes?

North East Lincolnshire Council does not hold the information you have requested.

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal review process. If following this you are still dissatisfied you may contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary arrangements.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Feedback Officer
Resources Directorate

show quoted sections

Dear PPD - FOI,

I have just been made aware that there is legislation which dictates that a Local Authority can only charge costs it incurs for the issue of the summons, so any costs collected may be used solely for that reason. Therefore, I accept that North East Lincolnshire Council would not hold the information.

Obviously it would be unlawful for NELC to fund additional administration necessary because of changes to Council Tax Benefit etc. with additional income generated through summonses.

Therefore, if the £0.5 million extra summons income in 2013/14 needs by law to be used purely for issuing summonses, then additional staff must have been employed to do that with salaries corresponding to the extra income, presumably to cope with the extra workload.

How many additional staff was it necessary for NELC to employ to take care of the extra £0.5 million and workload?

Yours sincerely,

R. Suggitt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Sir / Madam

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number 7552/1415.

 

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

 

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:

 

http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council/the-co....

 

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Sir / Madam

 

Thank you for your information request, reference number 7822/1415.

 

I wish to confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council holds the following
information

 

North East Lincolnshire Council have not employed any additional staff for
the purposes outlined in your request.

 

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  If following this you are still dissatisfied you may
contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request
an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

Resources Directorate

 

show quoted sections