Ceredigion County Council is facing a £1m overspend on its budget, with the social services department already warning of a possible £2.5m overspend by the end of the financial year.

Cabinet members heard that estimates for the end of the financial year suggest that there is currently an overspend of around £1m on its £143.6m budget.

Across departments there is a varying picture with several departments expecting to underspend against their budget, however adult services is expecting a huge overspend of around £2.3m while children services is expecting an overspend of £240,000.

That will be offset by underspending in other departments, including an anticipated underspend of £1m by the leadership group thanks to transformation savings achieved.

A report that went before the council’s Cabinet on Tuesday, 24 September said that in previous years the budgetary situation has improved during the course of the year but that things would continue to be monitored.

The report said: “The current forecast is for an overspend of just under £1m.

“Good progress against the savings target of £6m has been achieved. £4.7m (78 per cent) has been achieved to date.

“Adult services anticipates an overspend by year end of £2.29m. The overspend is mainly linked to the delay in achieving the 2019/20 savings (£1.276m not achieved to date), together with an increase in Direct Payments across all services and in-year commitment relating to Independent Sector beds.”

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