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The Royal Borough's Benefit Service
has emerged with a clean bill of health after a searching examination
from the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate, the Government agency responsible
for scrutinising council benefit services.
The BFI put the Borough under the
spotlight in June as part of its rolling programme of compulsory
inspections. In its report published today, the BFI commends the
Council's in-house benefits team for customer service "of a very
good standard."
"Almost all of those calling at
the Town Hall are seen within 15 minutes," the Inspectorate notes,
with an impressive 82% of customers reporting satisfaction with
the service.
The Royal Borough also "has low
levels of complaints and deals well with those it does receive.
" Service delivery is of "a very
good standard" conclude the inspectors, with benefit officers getting
assessment right at a first class rate of 96.6%.
The BFI also notes with approval
the conclusion of the Council's external auditors; that housing
benefit services "operate well."
The way the Council looks carefully
at claims in an effort to keep down fraud is also acknowledged in
the report, although the Inspectorate did make plain that they would
like to see more fraud investigation.
This is also a Council objective,
but one that has been hampered by a succession of personnel changes.
However, the staff are now in place to deliver even more vigorous
anti-fraud work.
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