§ 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, the benefit fraud inspectorate (BFI) inspection report on Bury metropolitan borough council was published today and copies of the report have been placed in the Library.
13WSFollowing 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 Bury metropolitan borough council against the performance 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 council is performing well in a significant number of elements of the standards.
The report finds that historically the council's benefit service has been given low priority within the council and performance overall has been mixed. While counter-fraud performance has been sound, performance in the processing of claims has been weak and there are significant arrears of work.
The report finds that since the comprehensive performance assessment result, announced in December 2002, the council has made progress across many areas of the performance standards.
14WSThe major challenge for the council is to significantly improve its benefits processing performance. This will be helped by a more systematic approach to planning, backed up by project disciplines and gathering management information.
In 2001–02, Bury metropolitan borough council administered some £31.3 million in housing benefits, about 15.5 per cent. of its total 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.