More than £167,000 of rent arrears have been written off by West Dunbartonshire Council as residents face the “biggest cost of living crisis in generations”.
The amount of debt owed to the council increased from £11,973 in 2018 to £132,589 in 2021 - and this year totalled £167,878.17.
During Thursday’s housing and communities meeting, members also agreed to allow the chief officer to write off individual debt of up to £5000.
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Peter Barry, chief officer of housing and employability, said: “Debt write off is an unfortunate but regular occurrence for members in previous years where there would be certain aspects of our rent that we cannot collect and it becomes expensive and counter productive to pursue it.
“We have kept those cases open in case there is an opportunity to pick it up later. We are now facing the biggest cost of living crisis in generations.
“The most disadvantaged who are living with exceptional challenges are simply defaulting on their debt and we are seeing that more and more and more.”
Questions were raised about the amount of debt that had piled up since 2018.
Councillor John Millar said: “I am looking at the amount of debt write offs and I would like to know why it has gone up so much from 2018 and the years up to 2021.”
Mr Barry responded: “We have put in a lot of work and resources in pursuing these cases and trying to bring them to conclusion. The number of cases is outstanding and a significant amount of work has been done to chase them down.
“The finance department has simply reached the end of the line.”
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