13 May 2004 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Third Report: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Andrew Smith has today published a third inspection report by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) on the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and counter-fraud activity by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.
This third BFI inspection was instigated due to a deterioration in the performance of the council’s Benefits service. 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 finds that the council’s Benefits service had failed to fully implement 54 per cent of the recommendations made in the earlier follow-up inspection report, published in March 2001. This led to poor performance in key areas including customer services, processing of claims and overpayments.
Since the follow-up inspection, the council had embarked on an ambitious programme of change. There had been an improvement in the verification of supporting information before benefit was paid, following implementation of the Verification Framework. However, BFI has concerns about the council’s speed of claims processing and its lack of quality checking. New benefit claims were taking an average 86 days to clear compared with 61 days in 2001 and the Performance Standard of 36 days.
During the period January to September 2003, the council had failed to comply with Regulations when it made awards of benefit in a significant number of cases when it did not have a claim for the period in question.
Customers experienced real difficulties in accessing the service, either through the council’s call centre or in person at the enquiry counters. Limited performance monitoring of this area made it difficult to identify performance issues and target resources effectively.
There was insufficient staff training on overpayments of benefit and a lack of monitoring. The range of management information collected on overpayments was poor.
The report finds good practices in the council’s counter-fraud work including high levels of sanction activity against benefit fraudsters, publicising its counter-fraud policy and having accurate staff guidance.
In 2002/03, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council administered some £106.3 million in housing benefits, about 12.5 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 inspection at Sandwell Metropolitan Borough 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 Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in September 1999 and the follow-up report in March 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 108883
Public enquiries 020 7712 2171
Website www.dwp.gov.uk