As part of the Rates Harmonisation process we have revised the existing Rates and Annual Charges Hardship Policy to ensure ongoing compliance with legislative requirements and with the Office of Local Government’s Debt Management and Hardship Guidelines, issued in November 2018.

The revised draft policy provides modern, fair and effective debt recovery and hardship processes and practices in line with the requirements of relevant legislation. It sets out information that council must take into account when developing and implementing debt management and hardship actions.

The policy gives council options to provide hardship assistance to ratepayers suffering genuine financial hardship due to a variety of different circumstances including environmental disasters, pandemics and significant impacts due to legislative changes such as rates harmonisation.

A key objective of the policy is to work with our ratepayers to achieve flexible alternatives to legal action where possible.