§ 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 London Borough of Enfield 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.
In 2002–03, London Borough of Enfield Council administered nearly £123 million in housing benefits, representing some 17.5 per cent of its gross revenue expenditure.
The report concludes that the council had made sustained improvements in some important areas since the initial inspection of the benefits service in September 2002.
Between September 2002 and March 2004 it had reduced its backlog of work of some 6,800 items to 1,882 and made significant improvements in processing new benefit claims, reducing the time taken to determine claims from 67 days on average in 2002–03 to 41 days by February 2004.
182WSThe council had made organisational changes to strengthen its stand against benefit fraud. It had increased the number of investigators, leading to improvements in the quality of investigative work and the number of sanctions being applied to fraudsters.
However the council needs to improve the identification, classification and recovery of benefit overpayments.
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 BFFs findings and recommendations.