The benefits service provided by the Borough of Poole is 'fair' and has 'promising' prospects for improvement, according to an independent report released today by the Audit Commission.
On a scale from zero to three stars, the Audit Commission inspection team gave the service a 'fair', one-star rating. It has a number of strengths, but there are also some important areas where it needs to improve.
The service is dealing with new claims more quickly than before and people are paid faster. It is reducing fraud and error. The most vulnerable people are being helped with additional financial support, and advice has been given to people facing redundancy. However, the service is expensive, it takes too long for the service to deal with people's changes of circumstance, and not enough is being done to minimise overpayments. The council recognises that it needs to improve further in these areas and it is acting on plans to tackle the problems.
Martin Green, Audit Commission senior manager, said: 'Poole is providing a satisfactory and improving benefits service. I am pleased to see it is getting faster at handling new claims. I am also encouraged by the support being given to people in the most need. Senior officers are committed to improving the service further and are taking steps to tackle weaknesses in claims accuracy and value for money. But the service is still too costly and detailed action plans to improve are not always good enough.'
Strengths include:
- People are getting their new claims for benefit paid faster.
- Access to the service is improving for people with specific needs.
- Staff are enthusiastic and capable.
- A good range of leaflets is available to customers and the website is clear and easy to use.
Weaknesses include:
- Customers are not encouraged or prompted to report changes that may affect the level of benefit they receive.
- It takes too long to deal with these changes when they are reported.
- The accuracy of claims processing is weak.
- Information about costs of the service is not yet being used to achieve value for money.
- Service objectives are not always supported by good quality detailed action plans.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:
- Ensure that sufficient resources are available to deal quickly with changes of circumstances.
- Tackle potential weaknesses in benefit payments through regular monitoring and reporting of accuracy levels.
- Improve the quality of detailed action plans with better specific and measurable targets.
- Develop plans to reduce costs whilst maintaining quality.
Copies of the report are available from the Borough of Poole or from the Audit Commission website.
Notes to editors
- The Borough of Poole's benefits service pays out around £52.5 million in benefits per year to 11,770 people claiming council tax benefit and 9,400 people claiming rent allowance, of which 5,060 are tenants of registered social housing and 4,140 are tenants of private landlords.
- The service is run in-house as part of the Financial Services Directorate. The cost of running the Service in 2009/2010 is £2.1 million, of which £1.5 million is funded through a grant from the Department of Wok and Pensions and the balance is met by the council.
- The Audit Commission is an independent watchdog, driving economy, efficiency and effectiveness in local public services to deliver better outcomes for everyone.
- Our work across local government, health, housing, community safety and fire and rescue services means that we have a unique perspective. We promote value for money for taxpayers, auditing the £200 billion spent by 11,000 local public bodies.
- As a force for improvement, we work in partnership to assess local public services and make practical recommendations for promoting a better quality of life for local people.
For further information please contact:
Callum Collins, Senior Regional Communications Manager (Southern)
Tel: 0844 798 8844