About the Benefits Section

The Benefits Section consists of officers employed by the council to administer Housing & Council Tax Benefits, on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

This means that if you are having difficulty in paying your rent and council tax we may be able to help you.

Around 12,500 people receive some form of assistance with rent, council tax or both. To find out if you are eligible to claim benefits please read the guidance notes supplied with the application form, which will also supply you with a variety of contact points and telephone numbers.

Please remember that benefits must be claimed by completing a form, if you do not contact us we may never know that you need our help.

Our Mission Statement says:

'We want to tackle poverty and isolation for the people of Herefordshire by providing a modern, efficient and secure benefit delivery service, which is customer-focused, cost-effective, and minimises barriers to work'.

Benefit Service Standards 2007/08

We will:

• Provide you with claim forms that are easy to read and understand.
• Check the accuracy of our work and aim for 98.6% of benefits payments being made correctly.

We aim:

• To decide 90% of claims within 14 days of receiving all of the information.
• To process new claims for benefit within 28 days.
• To decide 100% of claims for discretionary Housing payments within one month of receiving all of the information.

If you:

• Need help with filling in your benefit claim form, and you are housebound, we will arrange to visit you at home.
• Tell us about a change of circumstances, we will aim to deal with it within 16 days of receipt.
• Ask us to provide more information in writing about a decision we have made, we will aim to do this within 14 days.
• Appeal against your benefit entitlement, we will deal with 98% within one month.
• Pay rent to a private landlord, we will offer you a choice of benefit payment methods (subject to status).
• Start work after being unemployed, and you tell us straight away, we will aim to deal with your claim within 7 days.

Performance for month of February 2008

• Average time to process a new benefit claim = 27.5 days.
• Average time to decide new entitlement following a change = 11.5 days.
• 97% of claims checked were calculated correctly.

Statement of Intent

We want to:

• Provide a modern, efficient, effective, and secure benefit delivery service, which is customer-focused, tackles poverty and isolation, and minimises barriers to work.
• Assess benefit entitlement quickly and accurately.
• Reduce levels and risks of fraud and error by maintaining full compliance with the Verification Framework.
• Provide comprehensive information to the public on benefits so that they are informed about their entitlements and enabled to claim and receive benefits.
• Provide clear explanations of how decisions on claims are reached; including information about appeal rights.
• Ensure the correct amounts of benefit are paid on time, with proper safeguards against fraud and abuse. Where overpayments of benefit do occur, ensure recovery is made by the most effective methods without causing hardship.
• Develop and evaluate activities; provide information on the operational implications of current and proposed legislation including forecasting trends and benefit expenditure.
• Achieve targets in line with the agreed National and Local Performance Indicators.
• Ensure that the departments resources are managed economically, efficiently and effectively at all levels, and maintain financial and management information systems.
• Encourage and develop staff at all levels by creating an environment that encourages both personal development and participation in the creation and achievement of aims and objectives.
• Implement a robust anti-fraud strategy in order to protect public funds and to ensure that benefits are delivered to those who have a true entitlement to them.