§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Chris Pond)On behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the benefit fraud inspectorate (BFI) follow-up inspection report on Northampton Borough Council was published today and copies of the report have been placed in the Library.
Following the housing Green Paper "Quality and Choice: A Decent Home for All", published in April 2000, the Department for Work and Pensions developed a performance framework for housing benefits. The performance standards for housing benefits allow local authorities to make a comprehensive self-assessment of whether they deliver benefit effectively and securely. They are the standards that the Department for Work and Pensions expects local authorities to aspire to and achieve in time.
The BFI inspected Northampton Borough Council against the performances standards for housing benefits. The report finds that the council is not at standard for any of the seven functional areas of the performance standards—strategic management. customer services, processing of claims, working with landlords, internal security, counter-fraud, and overpayments.
However, the report finds that the council has made significant improvements in the areas of counter-fraud and working with landlords, since the first BFI inspection report published in April 2000. Weaknesses remain in claims processing and overpayment performance.
The council's management information is very limited across all areas of its benefits administration and as a result, there is little awareness of the issues affecting performance. In particular, the lack of effective management controls and checks in claims processing and the overpayment process has hampered the council's ability to improve claims processing and recover overpaid benefits.
There were significant backlogs of work, with new housing benefits claims taking an average of 62 days to clear compared with the national target of 36 days.
The report finds good practices in the council's benefits service including quality training of its fraud investigators, clearly set out benefit claim forms and good working relations with key stakeholders.
In 2002–03, Northampton Borough Council administered some £46.7 million in housing benefits, about 39 per cent. of its gross revenue expenditure.
The report makes recommendations to help the council address weaknesses and to further improve the administration of housing benefit and council tax benefit, as well as counter-fraud activities.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is now considering the report and will be asking the council for its proposals in response to the BFI's findings and recommendations.