Agenda and minutes

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 7.

The Democratic Services Officer read out the procedure.

RESOLVED that a Vice-Chair was not required on this occasion.

Apologies were received from Chris Dando, for whom Eleanor Jackson substituted.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

There was none.

There were none.

Members thanked Arlingclose and officers for the extremely helpful training session on Treasury Management that had preceded the meeting.

These were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Mr Morris presented the report. He updated the Committee on two matters.

A.  Grant Certification Report

He drew attention to the letter attached as Appendix 1 to the report, relating to the Housing Benefit Return. The letter identified a number of areas where errors had been made. This work is undertaken on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions and has to be done according to a prescribed process. There is no materiality limit, so all errors have to be reported. The level of errors found this year had been higher than expected. However, it had been agreed with officers that there would be no additional audit fees this year on the basis that training was provided to relevant Council staff very late in the 2014/15 financial year.

A Member suggested that the errors were minimal in terms of their number and average value when compared with the total HB budget of nearly £55m. It was also the case that applicants made many more errors than Council staff. Mr Morris agreed, but explained that an amendment was only made when the value of an error could be fully quantified. If the number of cases to be reviewed was less than 100, then every single case was examined. Above that figure, extrapolation was applied. When extrapolation is used, the value of errors cannot be quantified. Error rates were high, so the total value of errors could be much higher than the stated figure. He emphasised that it is the number of errors and the error rates that are important.

A Member said that regardless of who was responsible for the error, it could be a tough challenge for low-income people to have to repay overpayments, even if this was spread over a long period.

Members put questions to the Customer Service Team:

Q: were they considering improving the HB application forms?

A: the forms have been shortened.

Q: did they give assistance to customers with reading difficulties?

A: a lot of work has been focussed on face-to face delivery, communication and understanding customers’ circumstances.

Q: Can claims be made online?

A: No, but they can be made over the telephone.

Q: how many claims accounted for the £55m HB expenditure?

A: 9834.

Q: How long does it take to process a claim?

A: 45 minutes. Payment is made within seven days.

A Member asked whether Internal Audit had done any work on HB claims. The Audit Manager replied that Internal Audit had just completed an audit of the processing of HB claims and overpayments. The final report had been issued in January and had given an overall rating of level 3 “satisfactory”. Two of the areas reviewed, including “claimants do not suffer financial loss” had been rated “good”. The control objective in relation to HB overpayments had received a “satisfactory” rating. Management had responded positively to the audit recommendations. Nationally HB overpayments had increased significantly. Increases in overpayment in B&NES were in line with the national trend. In response  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.

The Corporate Finance Manager presented the report. He reminded Members that the 2016/17 Treasury Management Strategy and Investment Strategy wold be presented to Council for approval on 23^rd February. He summarised the two strategies. He said that it remained the aim to postpone borrowing for as long as possible by using cash flow to fund the capital programme.

RESOLVED to approve:

1. the actions proposed within the Treasury Management Strategy Statement;

2. the Investment Strategy as detailed in Appendix 2.

The Audit Manager presented the report. The requirement of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 to publish the Statement of Accounts earlier from 2017/18 was highlighted, i.e. 31^st July 2018 rather that the end of September. It was stated that the governance review, carried out to produce the Annual Governance Statement, was already being carried out to comply with the revised timescale.

He drew attention to the criteria for ‘significant’ issues set out in paragraph 4.7. and in particular commented on the ‘Public Interest’ criteria.