27 January 2005 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Focused Inspection – processing of claims: Southampton City Council
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson, has today published a report by the BFI on the processing of claims to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit by Southampton City Council.
Southampton City Council was selected for inspection because it was taking on average 99 days to process new Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claims compared to the DWP standard of 36 days.
BFI found that the council had made improvements since the first BFI inspection report, published in 2002 and that new claims performance in the first quarter of 2004/05 had improved to 57 days. The Verification Framework was introduced in October 2002 and claims are now being verified to a high standard.
A comprehensive set of management checking procedures is now in place and claims are monitored to identify if a payment on account is required. Although these factors have improved the quality of new claims processing, there needs to be more proactive management at all stages of the new claims process if Southampton City Council is to reach the standard of 36 days.
In 2003/04, Southampton City Council administered some £68 million in housing benefits. This is approximately 13 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 Southampton City 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.
- The Minister for State announced in January 2004 that shorter more focused inspections, designed to support quick improvements in performance in specific areas of benefits administration, would be undertaken by BFI.
- 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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