To update members on progress to date with the Revenues and Benefits Improvement Plan, and to advise Members of current performance and activity in Benefits, including information on planned areas for improvement and to outline changes that will have an impact on future service delivery.

The Committee considered an update on progress to date with the Revenues and Benefits Improvement Plan, current performance and activity in Benefits, including information on planned areas for improvement and changes having an impact on future service delivery.

The Assistant County Treasurer presented the report.  She stated that the service had been involved in a considerable amount of activity with changes having to be made as a result of the implementation of tax and pension credits.    Further changes to the way housing and council tax benefits were to be administered had also been announced by the Government for implementation by April 2004.

The report detailed current performance noting that the service had not been able to deliver the expected improvement in performance to date.  However, it was expected that there would be a considerable improvement by the start of 2004.

The report described a number of actions designed to secure improvement in performance as follows.

·         Recognising that it was essential to have a full complement of staff,  two new posts had been established partly funded by the Department of Work and Pensions: a Training and Development Officer and a System and Support Officer.

·         It had also been decided to procure a new fully integrated software system.  It was not expected that this could be operational before Autumn 2004.  To ensure that the project did not have an adverse effect on processing times it was intended to recruit  additional agency staff to assist with claim processing.

·         There had been a successful bid for funding to work in partnership with the largest Registered Social Landlords in the County.  Benefits from this would include economies of scale.

·         Work had also been undertaken with the Service Improvement Team to see how existing processes could be improved.  One route involved appointments being made with all customers who wished to make a new claim for benefit so that a benefits specialist could deal with their claim on a face to face basis either in their home or in the office.  However, this could not be implemented in full until a number of constraints such as the lack of suitable confidential interview facilities could be overcome.  A number of options were currently under consideration.

It was also reported that while details were still to be finalised by the Department of Work and Pensions the further significant changes to the benefit system from April 2004 would have implications for the roles and responsibilities of staff and have an impact on performance in the short term.

Against this background as part of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate had reassessed the service and a maximum score of 4 had been achieved on the Audit Commission 4 point scale compared to 2 in 2002.  This was considered encouraging confirming the service’s ability to make improvements to the service whilst implementing significant changes to systems and procedures.  The County Treasurer added that although it was recognised that the service was not reaching the performance standards it wanted to achieve the assessment showed that the correct processes were in place.

In the course of discussion the following principal points were made:

·         The County Treasurer emphasised that part of the difficulty was the number of renewal claims.  He reminded the Committee that the policy was to deal with new claimants first because those seeking renewal of their claims continued to receive their existing level of benefit pending a reassessment and were therefore less vulnerable than new claimants.

·         That staff turnover remained a difficulty.  Moreover, there was no single contributory factor.

·         The lack of suitable confidential interview facilities was noted together with some of the options being explored to overcome the problem.

·         It was expected that the DWP’s funding for the posts of Training and Development Officer and a System and Support Officer would continue beyond 200405 but, if not, savings would have to be found to continue the posts.

·         That mindful of staffing difficulties home working was being investigated but was not possible with the present IT infrastructure.

·         Noting that Welfare Rights Officers and Supporting People staff offered some benefits advice, and in some cases were former Benefits Staff, it was confirmed that the Service already worked closely with those staff and sought to make the most of the available expertise.

RESOLVED:            That the report be noted.