The benefits service provided by Northumberland County Council is ‘fair’ with ‘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. The Council worked hard and successfully to provide a seamless service to all of its residents right through its re-organisation in April 2009. But the Council knows it has more to do to make sure local people get the benefits they are entitled to.
Michael Newbury, Audit Commission senior manager, said:
’Many of the most vulnerable people in the county rely on Northumberland’s benefits service. The Council’s commitment to maintaining the service through its reorganisation last year and its progress since has helped many people avoid financial hardship and keep their homes. Its work on making sure that claims are accurate is good news for taxpayers. However, more needs to be done, particularly to raise peoples’ awareness of the benefits that they may be entitled to. Our recommendations focus on helping the service to improve in this and other areas.’
The service’s strengths include:
- It deals with claimants’ changes of circumstances quickly ensuring that people get the benefits they need and are entitled to and customer satisfaction is good.
- The service has a good understanding of customers’ needs and uses this to develop its priorities and plans for improvement.
- Six different benefit services (previously run by the former district councils) have been merged into one with minimum disruption to customers.
- The service works well with other organisations across the county.
The service’s weaknesses include:
- It is slow at dealing with appeals and new claims which can create problems for people in difficulties.
- Not enough has been done to make local people aware of the benefits they are entitled to.
- The service does not have a comprehensive performance management system.
To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:
- Improving customer service by getting residents more involved in setting standards, and then reporting progress against these standards.
- Gain a better understanding of all customers and their diverse needs and using this information to improve services.
The Benefits Service in Northumberland pays out around £92 million per year to 30,335 people.
Notes to editors
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.