18 May 2004 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate Follow-up Report: London Borough of Bromley
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Andrew Smith has today published a follow-up inspection report by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) on the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and counter-fraud activity by London Borough of Bromley Council.
BFI inspected the council against the Performance Standards for housing benefits. The report finds that the council’s Benefits service had improved its performance since the earlier inspection report, published in September 2001, implementing 72 per cent of the recommendations from the earlier report. Also there was commitment and professionalism in the council’s efforts to improve benefits administration and examples of innovation and good practice.
The backlog of work identified in the first inspection had been cleared and processing times for new benefit claims had reduced from 120 to 81 days. Since the inspection further improvements have been made resulting in claims being processed in 41 days in March 2004. Challenging targets had been set for 2004/05 and there is still some work to do to reach the 36-day Performance Standard. Although the Verification Framework, the national standard for verifying evidence supporting benefit claims, had not been implemented at the time of the inspection, the council became fully compliant on 1 May 2004.
The introduction of an electronic benefit claim form was helping claims to be processed more effectively and BFI commends the council for the quality and level of management checking, providing assurance on accuracy.
The council had made major improvements in its counter-fraud work by entering into a partnership with London Borough of Greenwich Council, and there have been substantial improvements in the number of administrative penalties and prosecutions undertaken.
The council had comprehensive plans to improve its benefits overpayment work and had good management information for this area of work. However, it accepted that more work was needed to improve its recovery of overpaid benefits.
In 2002/03, London Borough of Bromley Council administered some £69.5 million in housing benefits, about 13.9 per cent of its gross revenue expenditure.
Compared to the Performance Standards, the council was not at standard for any of the seven functional areas – strategic management, customer services, processing of claims, working with landlords, internal security, counter-fraud, and overpayments. However, there were many components within these areas that were at or above Standard.
BFI is an independent unit within the Department for Work and Pensions that reports directly to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the standard of benefit administration and counter-fraud activity.
Chris Pond, Work and Pensions Minister announced the publication of the report in a written ministerial statement.
Notes for editors
- The process for the inspection at London Borough of Bromley Council included an initial fact finding stage, an on-site visit, and production and clearance of the report. The on-site visit took place during November 2003.
- BFI published its first inspection report on London Borough of Bromley Council in September 2001.
- Each BFI inspection report is considered by the Secretary of State who decides whether any further action is appropriate. The Secretary of State has powers to issue directions to a local authority to secure acceptable or minimum standards in performance.
- In its response to the Housing Green Paper of November 2000, the Department for Work and Pensions developed a performance framework for housing benefits. The HB/CTB Performance Standards, published in April 2002, enable local authorities to make a comprehensive self-assessment of whether they deliver benefit effectively and securely. These are the standards that the Department for Work and Pensions expects local authorities to aspire to and achieve in time.
- The Department for Work and Pensions has not set a timescale for when the standards need to be met by local authorities.
- BFI inspects against the seven functional areas of the Performance Standards:
- Strategic management – clearly stated aims and action, resources and monitoring, with effective training and IT
- Customer services – providing an efficient and prompt service that meets the needs of all claimants and persons with a legitimate interest in a claim
- Processing of claims – speedy and accurate claims processing with effective verification
- Working with landlords – to give private landlords the confidence to let to claimants and to support delivery of social housing
- Internal security – preventing internal fraud
- Counter-fraud – deterring, preventing, detecting and pursuing fraud
- Overpayments – preventing, identifying and recovering overpayments.
- The HB/CTB Performance Standards can be downloaded from: www.dwp.gov.uk/housingbenefit/publications/2003.asp
- Media copies of the BFI inspection report can be obtained from the Department for Work and Pensions Press Office on: 020 7238 0866.
- All BFI inspection reports can be found on the BFI website – www.bfi.gov.uk.
Department for Work and Pensions Press enquiries: 020 7238 0758
BFI Press enquiries: 01423 83 2938
Out of Hours: 07659 108 883
Public enquiries: 020 7712 2171