SWINDON Council has admitted its housing benefit performance is not good enough and says it is working to improve.

The Advertiser reported on Wednesday that the council was taking 57 days to process new housing benefit claims.

The national average is 47 days and the Government's target is 36 days.

But, 18 months ago, Swindon was taking almost 100 days to process new claims.

The Government rapped councils such as Swindon which take too long, saying it had a serious effect on the poorer end of society.

Swindon's housing benefit is processed by Liberata, a contractor.

Council spokesman Sarah Deacon said: "The issue of poor performance has been recognised by both the council and Liberata.

A plan was approved by the cabinet in February which set the end of May 2004 as a date for achieving the 36-day target for processing new claims.

"The council and Liberata are making improvements and performance in February was 47 days equal to the national average and well on target to achieve the 36 day target by the end of May.

"There have been significant improvements since Liberata took over in August 2002, at which time new claims were taking 98 days to process."