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Lord Hardy of Wath asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The Benefit Fraud Inspectorate report was published today in respect of Rother District Council and copies of the report have been placed in the Library.
Inspectors found that the council needs to improve on its performance and address weaknesses to provide an effective and secure gateway to the benefits system. The council welcomed the inspection as an opportunity to review and improve its benefits services and expressed a commitment to improve the efficiency, security and integrity of its service.
The report identifies a lack of consistency in evidence gathering and verifying claims and details a number of reasons for this including a failure to promote benefits, an inadequate telephone service, a poorly designed claim form, the lack of a benefits visiting team and inadequate training of staff. Improvements are also recommended for the processes for handling renewal claims and reported changes in circumstances to ensure that claims are free from fraud and error. The council's approach to identifying and providing staff training was found to be inadequate.
A further area of concern was the classification of overpayments, and the BFI makes recommendations to ensure fraud and error is detected at an early stage to keep overpayments to a minimum. The council was found to have effective systems for investigating fraud and recovering benefit overpayments. Internal and external audit's provision of a robust and effective audit service gives some assurance for the security of the benefits system.
Rother District Council is a good example of an authority responding positively and effectively to weaknesses identified by the BFI and thus providing a more secure and accurate benefits service to its community. The report makes recommendations to help the council address weaknesses and to improve the administration of housing benefit and council tax benefit, as well as counter fraud activities.
My right honourable friend the Secretary of State is now considering the report and will be asking the council for its proposals in response to the findings and recommendations of the BFI.
Lord Hardy of Wath asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The Benefit Fraud Inspectorate report was published today in respect of Southampton City Council and copies of the report have been placed in the Library.
The council has been working with a private company to provide IT solutions and improve its benefits service. Inspectors found that this work was still being implemented at the time of the inspection. It noted that some sound processes were in place but that the overall service being provided had weaknesses. A number of these could be attributed to the backlog of work that arose out of the introduction of new technology despite the council's efforts to plan and manage the change. This backlog was exacerbated by the staff's lack of familiarity with the new IT systems.
Southampton has been using a variety of claim forms of differing quality but was in the process of designing a single form taking account of the BFI's model claim form.
The report finds that there has been a history of inconsistent standards in the verification of claims for benefit. As a result the council could not provide the necessary assurance that the gateway to the benefit was secure.
The council makes benefit payments in a number of ways and this is commended in the report, but some weaknesses were found in the security of these payments. In the case of overpayments, the report recognises that the council has a number of good practices for identifying and classifying overpayments.
In the case of fraud investigations, it is reported that the council needs to address the organisation and management of its benefits investigation unit if it is to improve the quality of its investigations. Delay in completing investigations and poor quality investigations were identified despite a considerable financial resource spent on training. Better use of the fraud case management system is recommended. At
the time of the inspection Southampton was making proposals to restructure the investigation unit.Southampton has a number of good practices, such as the way it has managed change. Inspectors were also impressed with its arrangements to train new, and inexperienced staff.
The report makes recommendations to help the council address weaknesses and to improve the administration of housing benefit and council tax benefit, as well as counter fraud activities.
My right honourable friend the Secretary of State is now considering the report and will be asking the council for its proposals in response to the findings and recommendations of the BFI.
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