Wokingham

Wokingham district residents are now receiving a revenue and benefits service that is better than ever. Initial major changes were made after Wokingham District Council’s service was brought back in-house from private contractors in 2002 and steady improvements led it to be recently classified as ‘good’ in 2005/6 by the Benefit and Fraud Inspectorate (BFI), the official government body responsible for evaluating performance of local authority revenue and benefits teams.

A new survey by BFI shows that performance in the number of rent allowance claims paid on time has improved from 75% in 2004/05 to 82% in 2005/06. Accuracy of payments has also improved from 98% in 2004/05 to 99% in 2005/6. Claims are processed on average within 26 days, significantly better than the 36 day standard set by government.

Excellent performance was also maintained in aspects of security, with the council carrying out 31 sanctions to help counteract fraud during 2005/06, an increase of 82% over 2004/05.

Investment to improve the Wokingham service has included introduction of a new benefits information technology system and management restructuring. Before being returned to council management, the service, which includes council tax and business rate collection, processing of housing and council tax benefit claims and counter-fraud activity, took on average over 110 days to process and pay out a claim.

Cllr Frank Browne, leader of Wokingham council, said: “May I take this opportunity to thank the officers involved in transforming this important service for their professionalism and commitment which sees the improvement of the quality of provision for our residents.”

The council’s performance was measured using BFI’s Comprehensive Assessment Programme (CPA) and more details of the results are available on the BFI website www.bfi.gov.uk

Wokingham District Council