Ipswich Spy can reveal astonishing figures from the Shared Revenues Partnership that indicate some people are waiting more than 9 weeks for new claims to be processed by the council.
Confidential papers, seen by Ipswich Spy, revealed the shocking figures to a meeting of senior councillors from three authorities last week.
In an appendix to a report by the head of the Shared Revenue Partnership, it was revealed that more than 10 people had been waiting more than 64 days for a new claim to be processed.
The same appendix revealed that around 80 people had been waiting more than 64 days for changes in their circumstances to be processed.
Yet under the heading of Performance, the report claims that “Ipswich new claim performance remains sound as it is supported by the “fast track” mechanism set up with the customer service team,” and that “Benefit changes and Atlas files are being completed in a timely manner and are reflected in the processing times for changes.”
One senior councillor familiar with the figures told us that the length of time people were being made to wait was “disgusting”.
Ipswich Borough Council were asked to confirm these figures last week, but have not responded.
Last year the Shared Revenues Partnership came in for criticism after it was revealed that the accuracy of claims had dipped following the implementation of a new computer system. SRP committee members said then that this was because claims were being dealt with more quickly at the expense of accuracy.
The average time taken to deal with a new claim in Ipswich has remained remarkably stable, at between 20 and 25 days for most of last year, although the average time to process claims peaked last summer at 44 days. Yet the number of people whose claim took more than 64 days has doubled between November and January.
The Shared Revenue Partnership was set up by three local authorities to save money, providing a fast and reliable service.
Clearly if new claimants are having to wait weeks for claims to be processed, it effects people who are, by definition, amongst the financially vulnerable in society. It risks driving people into the arms of illegal money lenders of exactly the type co-ordinated action is targetting in the South East of Ipswich this week.
And if changes in circumstance take so long to be processed, there is a chance that people will incur overpayments and have to repay money, or will be underpaid their benefit and be driven to borrow money from loan sharks at frightening rates of interest.
Whilst the majority of claims are processed much more quickly than 64 days, the fact is nobody should have to wait that long for their claim to be processed. When you are struggling to make ends meet, every penny counts. To have to wait weeks for help with bills that just keep coming is disgusting.
Filed under: Cock Ups, Economy, Ipswich Borough Council Tagged: | benefits, Ipswich Borough Council, Shared Revenue Partnership
From Cllr. Derrick Haley, Chairman of the Shared Revenues Partnership (SRP):
SRP strives to deliver a service that is both swift in processing new claims, but also accurate. An inaccurate claim can be costly both to the claimant and on the resources needed to unpick the problem.
Since April last year, we are pleased that nearly 98% of all such claims are processed within nine weeks – the majority well within that time period. Indeed our average processing time for new Ipswich claims in December was 20 days.
In those rare cases – for example on January 22 there were eight from the Ipswich area – when a claim takes longer than this, it is almost always because of the complex nature of the claims and so we are duty-bound to ask the claimants for additional information and evidence. Sometimes this takes a while to be sent to us.
We are constantly looking at improving this part – and indeed all parts of our service – and every new claimant case that takes over nine weeks to resolve is the subject of a review process that allows us to learn any lessons that need to be learnt.
Thank you for that Paul. It is a shame that IBC have ignored our request for comment on this issue – even after our article was published.
Does Cllr Haley accept that 9 weeks is a very long time to not be receiving benefit on a new claim? If, for instance, you have lost your job and have made a claim for housing and council tax support, nine weeks is more than two months. Some landlords will begin eviction proceedings if you miss two months rent.
The papers that were put on the secret agenda of the Joint Committee, having previously been reported in public until they became subject to a critical newspaper report, also mentioned that the SRP is underspent on the staffing budget. Would it be reasonable therefore to conclude that the reason for such long waits is down to under-staffing in SRP, maybe down to an understandable desire to keep spending down at the expense of speed and accuracy?
Surely SRP should seek to be both swift and accurate and nobody should be waiting more than two months to have a new claim processed?
Equally important are the roughly 80 people who, as of January 8th, had to wait for more than two months for a change of circumstance to be processed. This is a far bigger problem, will extra resources be targeted at this to get these figures down under two months?