An Aberdeen council tenant will pay back their rent arrears at just 47p a month over the next 18 years after housing officers accepted it was all they could “afford”.
Another debt-ridden tenant will pay just £2.72 a month until 2040.
The figures emerged at yesterday’s meeting of the council’s audit committee.
A report to councillors read: “Guidance has been provided to housing officers to assist them in determining repayment arrangement amounts with tenants to allow for the repayment of arrears.
“When a tenant is unable to pay the suggested minimum amount the housing officer will use the Department for Work and Pensions applicable amount calculation to determine if the tenant has any surplus income, an expected repayment amount would be 10% of surplus income.
“In July 2015, there were 771 current payment arrangements in place.
“All but 23 had repayment instalment amounts for the minimum amount of £5 or above. Within those 23 payment arrangements is one arrangement for 47p which is payable until 2034, and another repayment amount of £2.72 until 2040.”
Liberal Democrat member Martin Greig called the repayments demanded “unduly low” and called for continuous reassessment to establish if the tenants could afford to pay more.
The Queens Cross, Hazlehead and Ashley councillor said: “I think that people will find it shocking that these tenants will be paying this back at such a small amount over so long a period.
“I think it would be reasonable to check on people to find I their circumstances have changed and they can pay more to their debts.
“It could prove counter-productive to even collect these funds and disadvantage the council financially chasing up 47p a month.”
But officers told Councillor Greig that “rigorous” testing was done before repayment amounts were set and “it’s better to collect some money than no money at all”.
The committee also heard that there had been 208 people evicted from council housing in Aberdeen in the financial year 2014-15.
