24 November 2004 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Good Practice Review of: Herefordshire Council
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson has today published a Good Practice Review by the BFI of the effectiveness and security of benefit administration at Herefordshire Council.
BFI found over 100 good practices, including:
- annual assessment of Revenues and Benefits Services against a quality framework, based on an excellence model
- good use of management information to identify trends and allocate resources effectively
- answering 97% of telephone calls within 15 seconds and seeing 97% of customers within 10 minutes of arrival at the office in 2003/04
- increasing take-up of housing benefits by a range of campaigns
- reducing the number of days to process changes of circumstances
- performing a 10% check of Corporate Quality Officers’ work to ensure accuracy and consistency
- supplying landlords with plenty of information to ensure they are fully aware of their roles and responsibilities
- relocating its main customer enquiries office to a building that meets the access requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act
- performing good quality fraud investigations that comply with all legal requirements
- reducing to 14 days the time it takes to send first reminders to debtors.
Local authorities might want to consider if they can benefit from the application of any of the good practices identified.
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 standards of benefit administration and counter-fraud activity.
Chris Pond, Work and Pensions Minister, announced the publication of the Good Practice Review in a written Ministerial statement.
Notes for editors
- The process for the Good Practice Review at Herefordshire Council included an initial fact finding stage, an on-site visit, and production and clearance of the Review. The on-site visit took place during June and July 2004.
- One of the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate’s key functions is to improve the effectiveness and security of benefits administration by disseminating good practice. Good Practice Reviews are a new initiative for the Inspectorate and are designed to identify practices and procedures that can help other local authorities.
- 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 customers 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 customers 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.
- Media copies of the BFI Good Practice Review can be obtained from the Department for Work and Pensions Press Office on 020 7238 0866.
- All BFI inspection and Good Practice Review reports can be found on the BFI website – www.bfi.gov.uk.
Department for Work and Pensions Press enquiries: 020 7238 0766
BFI Press enquiries: 01423 83 2938
Press office: 020 7238 0866
Out of hours: 07659 108 883
Public enquiries: 020 7712 2171
Website: www.dwp.gov.uk