TOWN hall bosses in Blackburn are set to write off more than £138,000 in outstanding debts.

More than £124,000 of the cash is made up of bills relating to 49 people or companies who have gone bankrupt, into liquidation or into receivership.

And an additional £14,000 is likely to be written off from 19 cases of housing benefit overpayment that the council has been unsuccessful in re-claiming.

Overpayments usually arise where benefit has been paid to a tenant or landlord and it is later found that the entitlement has been reduced or ended - for example where there is a change in circumstances which reduces entitlement or where a tenant leaves a property.

All of the 19 cases which will be wiped from the record relate to former tenants of council properties with substantial rent arrears.

Each of those account is more than 12 months old. In 10 of the cases the former tenants cannot be traced and in nine the tenants have been deemed to have insufficient means to pay bills.

But the debts will be recorded on the tenants' files in the council's housing department and rIghts, advice and entitlements department so that it any of the debtors later reapply for housing accommodation or benefits, attempts to recover the money will be re-activated.

The write-offs will be discussed by councillors at a meeting of the council's finance service committee tomorrow, with council officers recommending they be approved.

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