New Clause 9
Welfare Reform Bill
12:00 pm
Anne McGuire (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Disabled People), Department for Work and Pensions; Stirling, Labour)
I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman has raised these issues. The new clause may be technical but as he indicated, ground 8 can have a serious impact on the life of an individual. It is not used extensively, but he is right to point out that it is in the law and has the potential to be used. I am aware of the case that he highlighted.
The figure of 36 days that the hon. Gentleman mentioned is correct, but we are not sure where the 117-day figure came from. In 2004, the bottom 15 per cent. of authorities took an average of 74 days for processing. We suspect that the figure may have come from the London borough of Hackney, where the local authority took an average of 117 days to process new housing benefit and council tax benefit claims in 2004. That improved to 55 days in 2005-06, and Hackney is now processing claims within 30 days on average. I had the pleasure of visiting Hackney recently and I know that it has invested a great deal of effort in managing the front-of-house and back-of-house operations to ensure that people get the benefits to which they are entitled.
Members of the Committee may be interested to know how their own local authorities have improved their processing. Slough, which I think is the local authority of the hon. Member for Windsor, took an average of 67 days to process new claims in 2004; that figure is now down to 33 days. The Highland council was taking 53 days to handle new claims, which was within the average, but that has now decreased to33 days. South Northamptonshire has gone from 97 days in 2004 to 26 days, which is a tremendous achievement. Caerphilly’s average processing time was 46 days in 2004 and is now 34 days. Waverley, which I understand is the authority of the hon. Member for South-West Surrey, had an average of 81 days, which is now down to 46. Kirklees council, of which we have heard a fair bit in the Committee, has reduced its average time from 49 days in 2004 to 30 days. The star prize goes to Mid-Suffolk, the council of the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds, whose average in 2004 was not so fine, at 90 days; that is now down to 32 days. I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman’s interest in housing benefit, which is newly found, as he admitted this morning, has prompted his local authority to improve so dramatically.
We can see that local authorities recognise that they need to deal with the claims quickly. They are working very closely with our Department and sharing experience and good practice.