Shropshire Star

Shropshire Council defends record on housing benefits waits

Shropshire Council has defended its record on housing benefit after it emerged the authority was taking more than a month to process new claims.

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Figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions showed that between April 2018 and June 2018 new claimants waited an average of 33 days before their application was completed.

But Councillor David Minnery, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for finance, said while there had been delays in the past, the figure had now improved.

This was, in part, down to the introduction of a new online benefit form, he said.

Councillor Minnery said: "Although we were slightly behind where we would have liked to have been in terms of processing days in quarter one of 2018, the position has substantially improved and we are currently processing new claims at an average of 22 days."

"Claimants can now apply and submit evidence using our online application form which speeds up the end-to-end process and we would encourage applicants to apply online where they can.

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“Although we are seeing improvements in the time taken to process new claims, we appreciate that new claimants need a swift response and we are committed to working to improve this further by continuing to review the process from both an internal and applicant perspective.”

The figures, revealed in the Shropshire Star this week, showed that Telford & Wrekin Council was one of the fasted authorities in the country, processing new claims in an average of nine days.

The national average is 23 days, including weekends. Legal guidance says councils should respond to the claim within two weeks.

Powys Council took 16 days, which is beyond the legal recommendations, but still better than the national average.

Welfare charity Turn2Us said long waiting times such as that experienced in the Shropshire Council area could be worrying for applicants, and could lead to people being threatened with eviction and facing homelessness.

According to the figures, Shropshire Council processed 1,065 new cases during the three-month period.

Residents are eligible for housing benefit if they rent, are on a low income, and have less than £16,000 in savings.

The amount applicants receive differs depending on whether they rent from the council, or privately, their salary and whether they have any spare rooms.