28 January 2004 - Benefit Fraud Inspectorate Report: Bury Metropolitan Borough 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 Bury Metropolitan Borough 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.
However, the report concludes that the council was performing well in a significant number of the elements that make up the seven functional areas, and was rated at 71 per cent towards standard. It is encouraging that the council had made progress since the first Comprehensive Performance Assessment result announced in December 2002 and BFI sees no reason why the service should not continue to move forward.
The major challenge for the council is to improve its benefit claims processing. For the year 2002/03, Bury council reported that its average time to process new claims was 50 days. This compares favourably against performance in the previous two years when the average processing times were 75 days and 70 days respectively.
Bury council had strengths in its counter-fraud activities, achieving successful outcomes in the sanctions it was imposing on benefit fraudsters and had developed excellent working relationships with the Counter Fraud Investigation Service.
This sends out a powerful message to potential fraudsters that Bury council does not tolerate benefit fraud and will punish people who commit this offence.
In 2001/02, Bury Metropolitan Borough Council administered approximately £31.3 million in housing benefits. This is approximately 15.5 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 Bury 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 July 2003.
- The Comprehensive Performance Assessment in December 2002 and the Comprehensive Performance Assessment Improvement Reporting in December 2003 assessed Bury Metropolitan Borough Council’s Benefits service as Fair.
- 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. They 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.
Press office: 020 7238 0866
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Website: www.dwp.gov.uk