Audit Commission

The benefits service provided by Milton Keynes Council is 'poor' and has 'uncertain' 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 'poor', zero-star rating. This was because housing benefits are not paid accurately or quickly to all customers who claim and the Council has missed out on around £1.2 million of additional government money. The Service does not fully understand whether it is meeting the needs of all customers and not enough is being done to ensure that Milton Keynes residents claim all the benefits they are entitled to.

Robert Hathaway, Audit Commission senior manager, said:
'Successfully claiming benefits is an essential safety net for many people, especially during the current economic downturn. Milton Keynes Council has not done enough to ensure that people who need help with their housing costs get this promptly and accurately. It is vital that the Council moves quickly to improve this Service and our recommendations can provide a focus to support this.'

Strengths include:

• New benefit claims are dealt with quickly and effectively face to face.
• Customer reception facilities are good.
• Consultation with landlords is effective and there are good examples of partnership working.

Weaknesses include:

• A two tier service concentrates its efforts on people who can visit Council offices in person and neglects the needs of many other users. It takes too long to deal with postal claims.
• Performance in dealing with benefit customers whose circumstances change is weak.
• There is not sufficient consultation with benefit customers.
• Contacting the Service by telephone is difficult, with high numbers of abandoned calls.
• A lack of service standards means that customers cannot be clear about the level of service they can expect to receive.
• The Council made more than £2.3 million of overpayments over four years through mistakes and because it failed to respond to changes in customers' circumstances and adjust benefits accordingly. The government (through the Department for Work and Pensions) rewards councils where unnecessary overpayments are kept low. As a result of its high level of unnecessary overpayments the Council missed out on £1.2 million of 'reward' payments from DWP.

To help the service improve, inspectors made a number of recommendations. These include:

• Deliver quicker and more accurate benefit payments to all customers by ensuring the company contracted to deliver the service achieves challenging performance targets.
• Provide all benefit claimants with a prompt and equitable service, however they contact the service.
• Improve value for money by more effective recovery of overpayments and further reducing Local Authority error overpayments in order to access additional subsidy.

Most aspects of the Milton Keynes Benefits Service are outsourced to a private company. In 2007/08 the Service paid £72m in benefits to approximately 18,700 customers. By the end of January 2009 the number of customers receiving assistance had increased to 20,539. The contract is monitored by a small client team within the Council's Finance service (part of the Strategy, Governance and Performance Directorate). The client team oversees the Revenues and Benefits Service operation, provides the strategic direction for the Service and is responsible for ensuring that relevant benefit subsidy is correctly claimed from DWP. The Benefit Fraud Team is situated within the Council's Audit and Risk service.

Notes to editors

1. The Audit Commission is an independent watchdog, driving economy, efficiency and effectiveness in local public services to deliver better outcomes for everyone.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Further details about the role of the Audit Commission can be obtained from - http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk