27 January 2005 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Focused Inspection – processing of claims: Renfrewshire Council
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson, has today published a report by the BFI on the processing of claims for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit by Renfrewshire Council.
Renfrewshire Council was selected for this inspection because it was reporting that it was taking 87 days on average to process new Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claims, compared to the DWP standard of 36 days.
BFI found that errors in the Council’s use of its IT system led to incorrect calculations of performance and the Council was actually taking 43 days to process new claims for housing benefits.
Even within the actual times taken BFI found several process weaknesses that caused unnecessary delays in handling new claims and a weak management case-checking process that allowed errors to be repeated.
The council has made organisational changes designed to address weaknesses in the management of the Benefits service and responded positively to the findings from the inspection by implementing several recommendations immediately.
In 2003/04 Renfrewshire Council administered some £51million in housing benefits. This is approximately 11 per cent of its gross revenue expenditure.
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 focused inspection at Renfrewshire Council included an initial fact finding stage, an on-site visit, and production and clearance of the report. BFI’s shorter, focused inspections support improvements in performance in specific areas of benefits administration and security.
- 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.
- This report only looked at those elements of Strategic management and Processing of claims in the Performance Standards that BFI considered to have a direct impact on the speed of processing of new claims for HB and CTB.
- 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.
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