星空传媒

During the past two years, a number of councils have had problems processing housing benefit 鈥� most notably the London boroughs of Hackney and Lambeth (see "The failure of private firms", page 32). But if the government goes ahead with its threat to withhold housing benefit from antisocial tenants, the pressure on councils to process claims effectively will increase as they try to implement the government's agenda.

One inner-city authority that has managed to effectively deliver its housing benefit and avoid a huge backlog of claims is Camden. Between April 2000 and March 2001 the north London council dealt with 59,099 claims for housing benefit, interviewed 43,824 people in the office and maintained the lowest cost of administration per claim (拢73) out of 13 inner-London authorities (see table on page 32). It also only took five days to process claimants' benefits after they had undergone changes to their circumstances, whereas a number of other inner-city authorities took between 14 and 71 days (see factfile, below).

From ailing to A-list
The secret to Camden's success lies team organisation, having staff who know the job and are committed to the work, and close working relationships with other parties such as housing associations and advice bureaux.

Policy officer Peter De La Mothe says: "We have long-standing, good-quality managers who have been here for many years and know what to do. At the same time, members in the council are keen on a high-quality administration and they have left us to get on with it because we've never had any problems with the service."

When you enter Camden's reception area any preconceived ideas of a benefit office being a dreary lifeless place are immediately shattered. There are no staff shouting "Next!" from behind a glass barrier and not one uncomfortable plastic chair in sight. Instead, claimants 鈥� or customers, as Camden council staff call them 鈥� can take a seat in a relaxed waiting area adorned with leaflets.

From there they are called to speak to a benefits assessor who helps them fill in a form with their personal details, such as proof of their rent and level of income.

The information is double-checked and from this the customer's entitlement is worked out and payments are made by cheque or through BACS.

It's vital that the assessors spot any discrepancies in the application forms straight away, because Camden opted out of the system that requires local authorities to check each claimant is genuine. In defence of that decision, De La Mothe says: "The verification framework was a voluntary thing and we opted out because we feel that the system is too inflexible and, at the end of the day, our job is to administer benefit." Passports that are presented as proof of ID are scanned using a ultraviolet light to make sure they are genuine.

Team effort
In total there are 133 members of staff in the benefits department, split into seven assessment teams that each deal with a different section of the alphabet to ensure the workload is shared evenly. Each team has a manager, a deputy manager, three assessors for council tenants and owner-occupiers, and four or five assessors for private tenants. A separate team deals with claimants in temporary accommodation. There is also a team of five interviewers who carry out clerical work and a nine-strong investigations team. Because the authority has opted out of the claim-checking system, the fraud team plays a very important role. The team tracks down false claimants by following up tip-offs from its hotline and liaising with colleagues.

The council has never outsourced benefits processing to a private company, believing that the nature of the work 鈥� dealing with an array of circumstances and tenancy agreements 鈥� means offering the best service is incompatible with making a profit. 

Long-term benefits
De La Mothe says the council has never experienced major problems with benefits because, since it started administering them in 1983, it has always had a long-term strategy. He says: "It's important not to get into the habit of firefighting and just dealing with problems as they arise.

"You have to think long term. All staff go to training sessions every six months, and new employees are sent on programmes that focus on benefit regulation and customer-care practices.

"We want to ensure that when a customer comes in here they are treated in a way that you or I would want to be treated. After all, the council is a place where people should be able to go and be seen promptly and professionally."

However, there are areas that the council wants to improve on, not least the time that managers have to spend sorting out figures for performance indicators, at the expense of time spent managing their staff. The council is looking at ways to deal with this problem. It has also made claim forms simpler after customer feedback showed the old forms were difficult to understand and although its speed of processing new claims is above the average for London boroughs, it wants to improve it further.

Feeling that others could learn from its methods, Camden has joined forces with the Citizens Advice Bureau and produced a good practice guide. De La Mothe says: "The guide recommends that councils establish housing benefit liaison meetings on at least a quarterly basis, and that these should be attended by a senior local authority housing benefit officer. There should also be a forum for feedback, consultation and for raising issues of policy and practice. And authorities should involve the advice bureau in any review of policies or procedures, for example reviews of forms and best-value reviews."

The department is now gearing up for a new challenge 鈥� next year's changes to the tax credit system, which will widen the eligibility of claimants to those on housing benefits. The council has been liaising with the Inland Revenue and housing associations on how this will affect its staff's workload. In addition, there are changes in store for the pension credits system that will also have to be considered. De La Mothe says: "We anticipate that 7% more pensioners will be able to claim housing benefit so we will be working with the pensions service to tell the community about what they are entitled to."

Can other councils emulate Camden's success? Smiling, De La Mothe replies: "If we can achieve this level of service when we are in a London borough with all the problems of inner-city life, vast amounts of temporary accommodation and a large number of asylum seekers, then anyone can."