Switch to online benefits claims

An online system is providing residents with an alternative way of claiming housing and council tax benefit.

BECS is an online system which enables people to check how much benefit they are entitled to and make a claim. Customers are first taken through a trial calculation which asks a series of questions to establish entitlement. After completing the calculation customers have the opportunity to complete and submit a new claim.

When completing a claim the system asks questions based on information already given. For example, if the customer states they live alone it will not ask questions about a partner or children.

Prior to the introduction of BECS customers had to complete a claim and then have to wait to be told if they qualified.

As the new system tells customers if they will not qualify, this stops them completing a form unnecessarily and then having to provide evidence. This reduces the number of unsuccessful applications and has improved customer service for those needing to claim the benefits.

The council has significantly increased the number of electronic claims it receives compared to when BECS began to be promoted in April 2011. At that time it received 190 BECS claims which was 20% of all claims received in the month. In March 2012 this figure had risen to 747 claims, 72% of all claims received in the month.

This increase has been achieved by the council working closely with landlords, tenant groups and other organisations in the borough that help or advise tenants.

The new system means that customers can:

Make a claim anytime 24/7
Know a claim has been made and received by the council as it sends out an automated email receipt
Find out how much their entitlement is
Use the calculator to find out how much they may get if their circumstances were to change
Find out immediately what evidence is needed to complete their claim

Councillor Farooq Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Finance at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The success of the BECS system is good news for residents as it speeds up the claims process and saves the inconvenience of filling in a form if you are not entitled to housing or council tax benefit.

“I hope that more people who have the means to access a computer will use the system in the future so that we can improve our response times even further.”