§ 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 first quarter of 2003–4. The quarterly statistics for all local authorities in Great Britain were published on 9 October 2003 on the Department for Work and Pensions website athttp://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/other_stats.html and placed in the Library.
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 first quarter of 2003–4:
96 authorities reported meeting the standard of processing new claims, on average within 36 days;The average reported number of days to process new claims reduced from 59 in the first quarter of 2002–3 to 53 days in the first quarter of 2003–4;Authorities in the worst quartile of performance reported processing times between 56 and 153 days;106 authorities reported meeting the standard of processing changes in circumstances, on average within 9 days;The average reported number of days to process change of circumstances remains at 18 days when compared to the same quarter in 2002–3.The statistics are unaudited and are provided quarterly by local authorities to the Department.
The latest annual audited Best Value performance information for English local authorities is for 2001–2 and was published by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on 12 December 2002 on the Best Value Performance Indicators website at:http://www.bvpi.gov.uk/home.asp. A copy is available in the Library.
The most recent corresponding data for local authorities in Wales is for 2001–2. These are published on the Audit Commission website at http://ww2.audit-commission.gov.u1c/pis/pi_data_01.shtml. A paper copy of the relevant extract from this site is available in the Library.
The most recent corresponding data for local authorities in Scotland are also for 2001–2 and are in the Accounts Commission publication "Performance Indicators 2001–2002": "Benefits, Finance and Corporate Issues", a copy of which is available in the Library.