24 June 2004 - Councils improve on Housing Benefit standards
More councils are reaching the Government’s nationwide Housing Benefit standards, which are set to combat long delays in sorting out Housing Benefit claims that can mean hardship and even the risk of homelessness for people in vulnerable situations.
New figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) today show that Local Authorities have successfully cut the time taken to process claims to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, improving on last year’s performance.
The figures, which cover the final quarter of 2003/04, show that:
- 161 (39% per cent) authorities reported meeting the 36-day standard of processing new claims, compared with 130 authorities in the fourth quarter 2002/03.
- The average reported number of days to process new claims reduced from 53 days in the fourth quarter of 2002/3 to 47 days in the fourth quarter of 2003/4.
- Change of circumstances were processed in an average of 14 days, compared with 17 days in the fourth quarter of 2002/03.
- 179 authorities met the performance standard for processing change of circumstances, compared to 160 in the same quarter of 2002/03.
Housing Benefit Minister Chris Pond said:
"I congratulate all those authorities that improved processing times and the Housing Benefit staff who made this possible. But too many authorities are still not meeting the standard that the Government has set and 47 days is too long for someone to wait if they need help paying their rent. Delays in handling Housing Benefit claims could mean that tenancies are put at risk and that’s unacceptable.
“These standards are part of the Government’s commitment to combat poverty and social exclusion amongst the most vulnerable members of society. We’ll continue to work closely with those authorities to make sure that our customers get the service they expect and deserve.”
These statistics can be found on the Department's Information and Analysis website at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/performance.asp
Notes for editors
- The quarterly statistics are provided by Local Authorities (LAs) themselves and are un-audited. LAs can update their quarterly statistics at any time so these statistics are subject to change. Some Local Authorities did not return figures for all the quarters.
- The outturn figures for 2002/03 on the speed of processing new claims and change of circumstances, percentage of renewal claims processed on time and the accuracy of claims are audited figures unless the data was not provided to the Audit Commission (England and Wales) or Accounts Commission (Scotland).
- The statistics cover the following areas of performance:
- average time for processing new claims: this indicator measures the average processing time in calendar days across all new claims for which the date of decision is within the quarter. The time for each claim is measured from the date of receipt of the claim at any of the LA’s offices to the date a decision on the claim is made
- average number of days for processing written changes of circumstances
- percentage of renewal claims processed on time
- percentage of cases calculated correctly. This indicator measures the percentage of cases within a random sample for which the calculation of benefit is found to be correct on the basis of the information available to the decision
- percentage of new claims decided within 14 days of receipt of the local authority receiving all necessary information
- percentage of new Rent Allowance claims paid where the first payment is made on time
- Benefit claims may be more numerous or more complicated in areas where:
- there is a high proportion of applications from people who live at two or more addresses during the year
- there is a high proportion of applications from people in privately rented accommodation, where the application process is more complex
- there are more people in shared accommodation
- The Department is working with a large proportion of the councils with the longest processing times to try and ensure improvements are made.
For further enquiries please contact:
Ruth McAllister or Kathy Barlow: 0207 238 0758/0723
Press office: 0207 238 0866
Out of hours: 07659 108 883
Public enquiries: 0207 712 2171