8 March 2005 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) Focused Inspection Report: Brentwood Borough Council
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson has today published a report by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) on the processing of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claims by Brentwood Borough Council.
In 2003/04, Brentwood Borough Council administered some £11 million in housing benefits, 19 per cent of its gross revenue expenditure.
In January 2004 the Council was taking 82 days on average to process new claims against the standard of 36 days. However, at the time of the inspection in October 2004 it had made significant improvements and was processing new claims in an average of 40 days.
Brentwood Borough Council has made fundamental changes to its benefits service over the past three years, including major restructuring, new Information Technology systems and implementation of the Department’s Verification Framework.
The council recognised that service improvement could only be achieved by developing and retaining the experience of their staff and has been successful in doing so.
Customer service was clearly a priority and particular efforts have been made to ensure that all evidence to support a claim is gathered. A local initiative to interview all customers who submitted a new claim, or reported changes of circumstances, was unusual but effective.
The Council’s close monitoring of the claims process identified and resolved delays but this scrutiny was undermined by inadequate management checking and the limited level of assurance provided by Internal Audit. Inconsistent working practices, a lack of audit trails and weaknesses in document imaging also detracted from the quality of the work.
A number of successful bids to the Performance Standards Fund and Brentwood Borough Council's own investment have led to significant improvement in the average time taken to process claims. Steady progress that has been made in the speed of processing but quality needs to be improved.
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
- Inspection at Brentwood 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 October and November 2004.
- The Minister for Housing Benefit and Anti-Fraud, Chris Pond, announced in January 2004 that the BFI would undertake focused inspections to provide quick improvements in performance in specific areas of benefits administration.
- 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 Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit 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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