§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Chris Pond)On behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions I am announcing the publication of performance statistics for local authority administration of housing benefit and council tax benefit (HB and CTB) for the second quarter of 2003–04. A copy of the quarterly statistics for all local authorities in Great Britain has been placed in the Library and has been published on the Department for Work and Pensions web-site athttp://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/other_stats.asp
Publishing these statistics is part of our strategy for reforming housing benefit and for ensuring that local authorities are accountable for their performance in administration of housing benefit and council tax benefit.
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit performance statistics show that in the second quarter of 2003/4:
127 (31 per cent.) authorities reported meeting the standard of processing new claims, on average within 36 days, compared with 117 (28 per cent.) authorities in the second quarter of 2002/3;the average reported number of days to process new claims reduced from 58 days in the second quarter of 2002/3 to 50 days in the second quarter of 2003/4;authorities in the worst quartile of performance reported processing times between 56 and 149 days;156 (38 per cent.) authorities reported meeting the standard of processing changes in circumstances, on average within nine days, compared to 139 (34 per cent.) in the second quarter of 2002/3;228 (56 per cent.) authorities reported an improved performance between quarters 1 and 2 at processing new claims.The statistics are un-audited and are provided quarterly by local authorities to the Department.