The council has written off a vulnerable resident’s council tax debt after failing to ask for the money back for more than ten years.

Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) also apologised to the taxpayer after their renewed pursuit of the tax caused them ‘distress’.

Conflict between the council and the resident began 15 years ago in 2004 when WBC sent a reminder for payment to the resident.

A payment plan was set up for the resident but by October 2006 the outstanding debt was £1,139.63, meaning the council would need to be paid £230 a month until January 2007.

But WBC later told the resident it had put their account on hold in order to recover debt from another account.

More than ten years later the council sent the resident a letter claiming it was now ready to take enforcement action to claw back the money.

The resident told WBC they had already paid all money owed but could not prove this because their bank statements did not go back far enough to the relevant period.

A complaint was received by the authority in May 2018 after the resident asked the council to investigate its procedure in recovering the money, and after a three-month delay in accepting the complaint request, WBC claimed the debt was still owed.

The resident claimed this caused them “further stress” after the council’s debt collection agency contacted them again asking for the money.

Councils watchdog Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found the “significant” ten-year delay meant the council was at “fault” for this incident because the resident was prevented from getting the evidence they needed to prove the debt had been paid.

Sarah Hollamby, Director Locality and Customer Services at WBC, said: “We must always pursue outstanding liabilities. But with vulnerable residents, we do this on a case by case basis to ensure they’re protected and to make their arrears more manageable for them.

“In this instance, we worked with this resident to help them keep on top of his current arrears by setting up a repayment plan while putting his oldest arrears temporarily on hold.

“We are reviewing our policies and procedures, which is normal practice, but regardless of any changes we will continue to help our most vulnerable residents however we can.”