15 April 2004 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Report: Leicester City Council
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Andrew Smith has today published an inspection report by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) on the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and counter-fraud activity by Leicester City Council.
BFI inspected the council against the Performance Standards for housing benefits. The report found that 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.
The report notes the considerable efforts made by the council’s Members, senior officers and staff over a sustained period of time, and commends the council for developing a Performance Standards Action Plan to address areas below Standard.
The report finds that significant IT problems had hindered the council’s ability to deliver an effective Benefits service, contributing to huge delays in making benefit payments and a backlog of work which at its peak had been over 70,000 items. Staff shortages had also impacted on the delivery of the service. At the time of the inspection, the council had significantly reduced its backlog to 14,500 items.
Leicester City Council’s processing times for new claims to housing benefits was poor. Performance for the year 2002/03 had been 141 days. However, the quality of the processing and verification was of a good standard.
Reported changes of circumstances were taking an average 49 days to process resulting in avoidable benefit overpayments being incurred.
The quality of the council’s fraud investigations was found to be good and all the fraud investigation officers were trained to professional standards.
The council has been very receptive to the findings in the report and implemented a number of immediate changes. After the on-site phase of the inspection, the council approached BFI’s Performance Improvement Action Team to help it deliver improvements to reduce the backlog of work and the time taken to process claims.
In 2002/03, Leicester City Council administered approximately £97 million in housing benefits. This is approximately 16 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.
Notes for editors
- The process for the inspection at Leicester City 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 October 2003.
- BFI published an earlier inspection report on Leicester City Council in September 1998.
- 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.
- 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 108883
Public enquiries: 020 7712 2171