Adult Social Care Debt - Find a freedom of information request

1. Please can you confirm the total value of all Adult Social Care Debt that is currently outstanding and the number of customers to which the debt relates to.

2. Please can you confirm how much debt is more than 1 year old and the number of customers to which the debt relates to?

3. Please can you confirm how much debt is more than 2 years old and the number of customers to which the debt relates to?

4. Please can you confirm how much debt is more than 3 years old and the number of customers to which the debt relates to?

5. Please can you confirm how much debt is more than 4 years old and the number of customers to which the debt relates to?

6. Please can you confirm how much debt is more than 5 years old and the number of customers to which the debt relates to?

7. Please can you confirm how much debt is more than 6+ years old and the number of customers to which the debt relates to?

8. Questions 2-7 may be answered by providing your Aging Buckets report.

9. Please can you provide details of the recovery process that you have in place to collect unpaid Adult Social Care invoices (please provide relevant process timelines including the dates that automated reminder letters may be issued, Officer interventions (a flowchart may be provided).

10. What is the current bad-debt provision for ASC?

11. How much debt has been written off each year for the past 6 years?

12. Does the Council use its own Legal Team to issue Court Proceedings for unpaid Adult Social Care debt and if so, how many County Court Judgements have been obtained each year for the past 3 years?

13. Does the Council use an external Debt Collection Agency to recover unpaid Adult Social Care debt, if so whom is the firm(s) used and how many referrals have been made to the collection agency each year for the past 3 years including the value and aged of debt?

14. Please can you confirm the team that is responsible for the recovery of unpaid Adult Social Care Debt and the responsible person that manages the service including budget holder and S151 Officer?

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I

have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

1. Lincolnshire County Council currently have 2,820 individual customers with a debt outstanding.

2. £4,326,723 -1240 customers

3. £2,036,146 – 777 customers

4. £885,621 – 415 customers

5. £266,085 – 245 customers

6. £70,758 – 138 customers

7.£1,740 – 5 customers

8. See above for responses

9. Lincolnshire County Council follow an automated credit control process of 28, 42 and

56 reminders, however where an item is in dispute, these are not sent reminder letters.

LCC also have a Debtor Review Group for each area who review debts monthly where

debts are escalated in age and value order where there is a dispute, this group

determines next actions. Sometimes this can be the area team supporting a financial

assessment review, it can mean a write off - i.e., where someone has deceased with no

assets, or it can mean a referral to legal. This is not an exhaustive list of next actions.

10. As at 31st March 2022 - £9.6M

11. LCC don't have information to tell us whether the below amounts were written off because they were incorrect debt or non-payment ,

 2015/16 - £905,931

 2016/17 - £1,135,054

 2017/18 - £243,298

 2018/19 - £1,043,841

 2020/21 - £1,907,006

 2021/22 - £541,247

12. Legal Services Lincolnshire have obtained the following CCJs in the last 3 financial years.

Financial year

2019/2020 - 3

2020/2021 - 0

2021/2022 – 2

CCJ's by Lincolnshire County Council credit control

2022 6

2021 1

2020 1

13. Legal Services Lincolnshire have made the following referrals to debt collection

agencies within the last 3 financial years.

Financial year

2019/2020 - 0

2020/2021 – 0

2021/2022 4 referrals to High Court Enforcement Group - Value of debt = £63,457.09 -

age of the debt taken from the date of the CCJ is 6 years, 6 years, 5 years and 3 years.

Lincolnshire County Council credit control have made no referrals to an external debt

collection agency.

14. There are multiple budget holders responsible for the recovery of unpaid social care

debt. The S151 officer is Andrew Crookham.