Fast-track to benefits

A new scheme introduced by the Council will allow those entitled to benefits payments to receive their money quicker.

Since a new fast-tracking system was introduced last month, the Council says that the average time to process a new claim for housing benefit or council tax benefit has fallen from 31 days to just two days.

The Council claims that its record for assessing and paying a claim under the new systemm is 39 minutes of the claimant visiting their local customer service centre.

Customers attending any of the council’s Customer Service Centres are now given the opportunity to have their new claim fast-tracked. When making a new claim, it is checked to see if it is ready for assessment. If so, the claim is prioritised and sent directly for processing. For this to happen it is essential that the claimant provides all information asked of them to support the claim. Customer Services and Contact Centre staff will advise exactly what information and evidence is required to enable a claim to be fast-tracked.

As well as the fast-track system, customers can also now book an appointment to have their claim assessed by a benefits officer with them present. When making a claim, if there is not enough information to enter the fast-track route, the customer is told what information is outstanding and offered an appointment for later that week. The customer is then given the chance to go and collect what is missing, return to the appointment and have their claim assessed and benefit explained with them present.

The council says that the average time taken to assess claims within an appointment is six days – compared with an average of 27 days when they’re submitted by post. The council believes that the appointments system works really well when a claim is more complex and a lot of information is required to support the application, for example with anybody who is self employed or who’s circumstances change on a regular basis.

Councillor Greg Couzens, Council cabinet member, said: “We’ve introduced the new fast-tracked process and appointments system to make sure that claims are assessed and processed as quickly as possible and help to reduce the chance of claimants getting into arrears. We’re committed to ensuring that those people who are eligible for benefits get what they’re entitled to, and get it quickly, so these new schemes help our customers to get a better idea of how much they will get and when.”

Since the changes to the service at the start of August, more than 250 customers have benefited from the new scheme.