According to figures published by the City of York Council, it investigated over 188 cases of potential fraud against the authority during the last financial year.
The vast majority of these involved bogus attempts to claim Council Tax reductions. 13 involved attempted social housing frauds.
Of the 188 cases investigated, fraud was confirmed in 109 cases.
The potential loss of income to the authority was £255,185 pa.
The Council employs 13 anti fraud staff at a cost of around £270,000 pa.
York residents will have a month to comment on the York Councils budget plans for the next financial year.
Plans for some of the key expenditure areas were published over the weekend.
Council Tax will increase by 3.99% with 2% of the increase being earmarked for social care services. The latter will get a £4.5 million boost.
The results of the Councils consultation on budget options are also published. Only 691 residents responded. Their top expenditure priority was, unsurprisingly, road and path repairs.
The Council plans to make £4 million in savings although many of these are, largely opaque, financial management tweaks.
Council staff will get a 2% pay increase.
£11 million will be invested in services as part of the Council budget plans.
Savings include centralising communications budgets, fee increases and “making best use of Council assets”.
Growth includes £141,000 extra for Councillors pay and £80,000 for an “organisational development programme to ensure delivery of key Council priorities”
As well as the welcome commitment to invest more in highways maintenance there are some, surprises in the capital programme . There is £100,000 for a trial of robotics monitoring of social care clients. It will utilise AI. £230,000 is earmarked to replace rising bollards on Bishophill, while a whopping £6.6 million will go on new refuse collection vehicles. This, in effect, confirms that the reason for the multiple vehicle failures last year was poor replacement programming (3 of the new vehicles will be electric powered).
29 Castlegate
More is to be spent maintaining and extending the electric car recharging network. £270,000 is to be spent renovating 29 Castlegate which has been empty for several years. The report says “The condition of the building both internally and externally is deteriorating whilst unoccupied” (Quelle Surprise!)
Theatre Royal
The York Theatre Royal will get another £500,000 to spend on heating, lighting and access improvements. (NB. The Theatre received a £770,000 grant 3 years ago to complete refurbishment work & was supposed to be self-supporting by now).
Installing “hostile vehicle” prevention barriers in the City centre will cost £1.6 million.
Savings include changes at Yorkcraft and revised charging arrangements.
Growth mainly reflects price increases from suppliers and increased demands from an ageing population.
Savings include reducing child placement costs & less for community centre maintenance.
Growth items include an extra £250,000 for “safer communities” and £50,000 to create a Mental Health early intervention fund.
Environment and Climate change
Savings: Increases in fees and parking charges including evening charges, Minister badges and an “additional diesel duty” in 2021.
Growth items extra litter /poop scoop bins, better tree maintenance (halleluiah!), “ review of waste collection, including plastics and food waste” and including adding two extra green waste collections each March from 2021 onwards, additional staffing on waste rounds, improved city centre cleaning, effective weed control (praise the Lord!), another study into re/opening Haxby railway station (the fourth in the last 2 decades) and additional Taxi Licensing enforcement .
Savings Extended use of smart mobiles, reduced use of sub-contractors, reduced void times plus new James House rents,
Growth Electrical safety check programme, water hygiene testing, quicker repairs & “improving the care of estates”
Capital investments include an average of £8 million a year to be invested in Council house modernisation and building insulation programmes.
NB. The report pointedly does not make any reference to Council House rent levels.
We will publish other details as they become available
Older residents are being encouraged to attend a drop-in event in York to find out if they could be eligible for Council Tax Support and other benefits too.
The events are being organised by City of York Council alongside Age UK York, Older Citizen’s Advocacy York, Tang Hall Big Local, the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and other Advice York partners, and will take place on:
To attend the events simply pop by for some refreshments and a chat. Resident’s will also need to bring along details of their income and fuel bills to check how much they can save. Find out more about Council Tax Support at www.york.gov.uk/counciltax
Residents can also visit drop-ins and community hubs through out the city for information and support, to find out more visit: www.york.gov.uk/BenefitsAdvice
D4NT09 Council Tax bill 2013/2014 for property dwelling band F with 25% discount for sole adult resident
An investigation carried out by City of York Council has uncovered and successfully prosecuted a serious case of Council Tax fraud of almost £6,000.
Christopher Cuinu (aged 52) of Blossom Street, York, claimed Council Tax Support on the basis of being unemployed, obtaining £5882.41 from the public purse over a six year period.
Veritau, the council’s fraud investigation service, carried out an investigation into his claim for a reduction to his council tax liability.
The investigation was conducted following claims that Mr Cuinu owned and managed a café in York for a considerable period of time and fraudulently sought unemployment benefits.
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Refuse collection costs are a concern in York
A report being considered later this week forecasts that the York Council will overspend its budget by around £800,000. This is a controllable risk. Overspends are often projected after the first quarter of the 2018/19 financial year..
The Council has a net budget of £122 million.
Most of the overspend is for children’s and adult social care services. Waste collection costs also continue to be under pressure
The good weather and increased visitor numbers experienced during most of this summer has led to car parking income being 3.2 % above budget. This could lead to an £150,000 surplus at the end of the year.
The Council will also increase the surcharge on Council Tax rates applying to second homes from 50% to 100% with effect from April 2019.
A panel of residents gives a quarterly verdict on how well the Councils is performing.
Only 26% agreed that they could “influence decisions in their area”.
There was some good news though, with 88% satisfied with their local area as a place to live and 60% satisfied with the way that the Council runs things.
The Council only highlights a limited – and highly selective – number of performance indicators in its committee reports. Residents have to wade through on line scorecards to find out more detail (click)
Independent surveys of public service satisfaction levels in the City reveal that people are most unhappy with the following public services:
The Council singularly fails to publicly monitor and comment on these public services.
The best independently rated public service is the bus service with 57% now rating it as “good”. Many bus services are of course provided on a commercial basis.
D4NT09 Council Tax bill 2013/2014 for property dwelling band F with 25% discount for sole adult resident
The Council has started this week to issue its Council Tax demands for 2017/18. In total council tax will rise by 3.7%.
Residents have the option to spread the cost of their bill over 12 months rather than 10 months by request to council.tax@york.gov.uk
To make it simpler for residents to access a range of council services and report changes for council tax and benefits, they can create their own online account at: www.york.gov.uk/myaccount
At a click of a button they can also pay their council tax online, let the council know if they’re moving house, are claiming sole occupancy discount and student discount.
They can also request a copy of their bill, set up a payment plan if they’re in arrears and set up a Direct Debit.
In addition to this, council tax bills can also be sent by email. It’s free, fast, environmentally friendly and secure. Anyone without internet access can continue to call the customer service centre or visit staff at West Offices.
Included in the council tax information are details about financial support from the December 2015 floods. The council has been helping residents whose homes were affected with government payments and council tax exemptions. The deadline for claiming this financial support, if they haven’t already done so, is before 31 May 2017 by request to council.tax@york.gov.uk
The council’s gross expenditure for 2017/18 is £376.006m (380.391m in 2016/17) the amount raised though council tax in 2017/18 will be £81.630m (£77.072m in 2016/17) plus £703k (£667k in 2016/17) from parishes.
For more information about council tax visit www.york.gov.uk/counciltax
There are still a large number of defaulters who have yet to pay their Council Tax for last year.
Cumulatively this apparently affects 7447 residents.
Together they owe a whopping £1.3 million
Council Tax will increase by 3%, of which 2% will be ring-fenced to help with social care costs.
Council house rents will be reduced by 1% (in line with central government instructions). This will mean cuts in repairs budgets, although the housing account is showing a £20 million accumulated surplus.
The Council is to spend £234,000 more to fund “additional Community Safety Hub officers” to cover additional enforcement around dog fouling, street drinking, licensing infringement and noise enforcement plus ” a reactive service for street services to deal with fly-tipping, graffiti, litter and weeds” which would be a welcome step forward.
Another welcome improvement will be an investment of an additional £100,000 to help tackle mental health issues, while the completion of the Local Plan will cost another £350,000 and an update of the strategic flood risk assessment will cost £60,000.
An extra £74,000 will be used to increase Councillors pay.
Some of the more eye-catching cuts include:
Many residents will be looking at the Council capital investment plans to see whether the excesses of the last administration – which doubled the debt per head of population figure in the City – have been reversed.
The government has today confirmed that Councils may, for the forthcoming financial year, increase Council Tax levels by up to 4% without the need for a local referendum.
2% of any rise will be used to improve care facilities for the elderly.
The government has also indicated that it will agree a 4 year budget with any local authorities who wish to implement long term financial planning.
The implications for York of the provisional local government finance settlement announced today are still being worked out.
NB. Councillors in York have tonight agreed to implement a significant increase in their pay levels
The Council has issued a media release saying,
“City of York Council’s Executive is facing some tough decisions in 2016-17. Below outlines why these difficult choices need to be made and why residents’ views are so important.
To help shape the 2016-17 Budget proposals, the council is inviting residents to have their say through a consultation by Wednesday 20 January:
· Online at www.york.gov.uk/consultations/
· By post to FREEPOST RTEG-TYYU-KLTZ, Budget consultation, City of York Council, West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA
· By hand at West Offices or libraries/Explore Centres”.
On line consultation questionaire https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YorkBudget
The Council of course omits to mention many options that many residents might like to take.
Not can you vote to save money through the lower debt (interest) charges which would come if the subsidy was reduced for big investment schemes like the:
There isn’t even a “write in” option for those feeling inventive!
NB It is likely that the cap in increases will be around 3.9% most of which will be ring-fenced for elderly care.
The Council justifies its stance by saying, “This year’s budget proposals will seek to ensure the council’s priorities continue to be delivered, whilst also ensuring the council’s financial position is managed effectively.
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