9 March 2005 - Major improvements to Housing Benefit performance standards
Work and Pensions Minister Chris Pond has launched the new streamlined 2005 Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Performance Standards today. The changes are designed to focus more clearly on the speed and accuracy that benefit is paid rather than the process of administering Housing Benefit.
The original 641 Standards have been replaced by 19 performance measures and 65 key enablers - strategies and activities that should be in place in every local authority. A new graded 1-4 assessment of performance gives more weight to delivering improvements in the speed and accuracy of processing claims for Housing and Council Tax Benefit and reducing the level of fraud and error. At the same time it gives credit for the progress a local authority has made more accurately reflecting an authority’s actual performance and year on year improvements.
At the launch today Chris Pond said: "We have listened to those local authorities who said that the Performance Standards attempted to cover too much ground. The focus on key outputs and a smaller number of components will substantially reduce the burden on local authorities when undertaking self-assessment. The 2005 Performance Standards provide a sound framework for assessing a local authority’s performance but allow more flexibility for innovation in delivery models to meet the needs of customers and deliver efficiencies."
The 2005 Performance Standards will first be used in inspections starting at the beginning of April as well as the Comprehensive Performance Assessments to be undertaken later this year by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate. A programme of workshops for all councils is underway to provide in-depth understanding of the new arrangements.
Notes for editors
- The launch of the 2005 standards was held at the Victoria Plaza Hotel in front of an audience of local authority chief executives, council leaders, Benefit practitioners, and people from organisations that have an interest in Housing Benefit.
- Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Performance Standards, published in April 2002, enable local authorities to make a comprehensive self-assessment of whether they deliver benefit effectively and securely. The Standards were in seven functional areas of Strategic management, Customer services, Processing of claims, Working with landlords, Internal security, Counter-fraud and Overpayments.
- The 2005 Performance Standards replace the seven functional areas with four themes covering claims administration, security, user focus and resource management. Each theme has three components. The 641 Standards have been replaced with 19 performance measures and 65 enablers. Local authorities will be asked to report quarterly to the Department for Work and Pensions against the measures and carry out an annual self-assessment against the enablers. The new scoring methodology will give higher weighting to those parts of the Standards which underpin delivery of the Public Service Agreement targets for improving the speed of processing of benefit claims and reducing the level of fraud and error.
- The BFI was launched in November 1997 as part of the Government’s initiatives to reduce the high levels of fraud in the social security system. BFI is part of the Department for Work and Pensions, operating independently of those responsible for administering benefits, and reporting directly to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
- The BFI inspects social security benefits administration and counter-fraud activity within local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions, reporting its findings to the Secretary of State, and publishing its reports to promote good practice.
- Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPAs) were introduced by the 2001 Local Government White Paper “Strong Local Leadership – Quality Public Services”. The assessments require the specialist inspectorates and the Audit Commission to judge individual performance sectors (benefits, education, social services etc). These individual judgements are weighted and combined to give an assessment of the local authority’s corporate capability to deliver effective services.
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