Agenda item

To consider the attached report. 

Sue King and Darren Keen from Capita were invited to join the Strategic Board meeting for this item to review Capita’s performance. 

It was reported that the Council Tax collection rate was better than last year.  The number of people signed up to pay by Direct Debit was increasing also and the levels of outstanding correspondence on Council Tax queries had reduced. 

The collection rate for National Non-Domestic Rates was higher than last year.  The Strategic Board reviewed the list of outstanding business rates and noted that there were several stages involved in debt recovery.  Write-off of a debt was the last resort and was carried out by the Councils, not by Capita.  In answer to a question from a Member, Capita agreed to answer a complaint about the collection of a particular business rate debt and would send a copy of the reply to Strategic Board Members.  Capita hoped that its performance on business rates collection would shortly be in the national top quartile for both councils. 

Benefits performance was improving also.  The time taken to process a claim had reduced significantly in June for both councils.  Further improvements were being sought.  The number of outstanding claims was reducing.  However, Capita reported that the ability to quickly reduce overpayments of benefits was severely hampered by a Government imposed reclaimable limit of £9 per week.  The Strategic Board expressed concern at the levels of benefits overpayments and asked for comparison figures for both councils for 2008/09, 2009/10 and overall totals so that these could be discussed at the next Strategic Board meeting.  Capita accepted that the level of accuracy in its benefits claims administration needed further improvement and the figures for July were not yet available but were expected to be much improved.  The Strategic Board would monitor this closely. 

Turning to the exchequer services, it was noted that the payment of invoices within 30 days was better at South than at the Vale.  The staff that had not met the 30 day target would continue to be firmly encouraged to do so. 

Capita reported that one member of the operations staff located at the Vale’s offices had been offered relocation to Swindon and others had been offered relocation to Mendip in Somerset where operations for both the South and Vale contracts would be located.  Capita reported that it had responded to all of the issues raised by the Councils’ client manager about this proposed change.  However, the Strategic Director and Head of Finance asked to see Capita’s response.  The Strategic Board Members expressed a strong view that any change to the operations must not adversely affect contract performance but rather should improve it.

Members also noted that the Cash Office at South Oxfordshire would be introducing a new and much improved cash receipting system at the end of October.  The call centre had performed well over the last period despite the pressure of extra calls following the introduction of the new waste bins.  Assisted travel schemes were running at both councils and improvements were being made to the South Oxfordshire invoice (including brown bin invoices) to allow optical character recognition, which should reduce the problem of unidentified receipts. 

RESOLVED

that for the next Strategic Board meeting Capita provides benefits overpayment figures for both councils for 2008/09, 2009/10 and an overall figure for comparison.