Agenda item

The Committee received a report from the External Auditor regarding grant certification for 2014/15 (for copy see file of Minutes).

The External Auditor highlighted the areas of grant certification work that has been completed:-

·         Housing Benefit Subsidy

·         Pooling of Housing Capital Receipts Return

·         Teachers’ Pension Return

Referring to Housing Benefit Subsidy, Councillor Temple asked for information about underpayments as this was not evident.  The Chairman asked that this information be reported back.  The Corporate Director, Resources advised that £200m had been paid in housing subsidy and said that this was an entitlement that the Council were processing on behalf of the government.  He could understand the concern about underpayments but assured Members that the authority were doing everything possible to ensure that people were getting what they were entitled to.   He added that the service had performed well in this area and worked well with the external auditors.

The Chairman said that it was pleasing to see the progress that had been made in this area.  Councillor L Armstrong said that Members of Corporate Issues Overview and Scrutiny Committee received regular updates about this area of work.

Resolved:-

That the report be noted.