£850,000 to solve benefit claims crisis (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

£850,000 to solve benefit claims crisis

8:49am Thursday 25th May 2006 in Swindon

SWINDON'S benefits and collection service has been hit with a £1.7 million bill to solve a claims backlog crisis.

Swindon Borough Council has had to hand £850,000 to contractor Liberata to deal with the backlog of claims and letters. The company will pay the remaining £850,000.

Cabinet member for resources Nick Martin said the money would be recovered by making the service more efficient.

A report says the council anticipated savings of up to £500,000 last year and another £350,000 this financial year.

"In March 2005 it was evident there were significant backlogs of work in the revenues and benefits service, with almost 14,500 items of benefit correspondence waiting to be processed," the report says. The backlog created a delay in waiting times for new benefits claims from 35 days last February to 51 days just a month later.

Unanswered new claims also rocketed to 783 last March and were predicted to rise to an unprecedented 860-plus in April.

Coun Martin said the council had agreed to foot half the bill for extra workers to tackle the paperwork.

By August, it had been cut 1,095 outstanding items, of which almost half had been investigated and awaited a resident's reply.

Coun Martin said the council had no option but to negotiate changes.

"Council chief executive Sir Mike Pitt sat down with the CEO of Liberata and banged the table and got a deal," Coun Martin said.

"We moved from being a poor revenue service to being an excellent one."