§ 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 third 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 website at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asdl/hb_ctb/performance.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 third quarter of 2003–04 for those authorities that submitted data:
155 authorities reported meeting the 36-day standard of processing new claims, compared with 134 authorities in the third quarter of 2002–03;the average reported number of days to process new claims reduced from 53 days in the third quarter of 2002–03 to 47 days in the third quarter of 2003–04;175 authorities reported the standard of processing changes in circumstances, on average within nine days, compared to 166 in the third quarter of 2002–03.The statistics are un-audited and are provided quarterly by local authorities to my Department.
The audited Best Value performance information for English local authorities for 2002–03 was published by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on 18 December 2003 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 are also for 2002–03. These are published on the Audit Commission website at: http://www.lgdu-wales.gov.uldeng/Project.asp?id=SX99A1-A77F4BA8
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 2002–03 and are in the Accounts Commission publication "Performance Indicators 2002/2003: Benefits, Finance and Corporate Issues" a copy of which is available in the Library.