Right amount of benefit
6. Right Amount of Benefit
Ensure the council makes accurate decisions
6.1 The Council has sound and comprehensive mechanisms to ensure the quality of Benefits Service work. This is achieved with regular training of staff, and quality checking procedures.
6.2 The overall work of the Benefits Section is independently monitored by Internal Audit. The aim is to provide assurance to the Council that procedures are adequate, appropriate and can be audited for financial integrity.
6.3 Decision makers receive training, and refresher training throughout the year. This is in response to:
- Circulars issued by the DWP
- best practice guidance issued by government departments
- benchmarking intelligence that suggests good practice
- responses to complaints
- errors found through the Quality Checking procedure
- changes in the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support regulations.
The Quality Assurance Plan sets out the details behind this approach.
6.4 Training requirements are included in the annual training plan. They are provided internally or externally depending on the requirements.
6.5 Operational procedures provide for the regular quality control of work undertaken within the Benefits Section. Errors made by decision makers are brought to their attention, and amendments are made to their decisions. Decision makers are provided with the opportunity to discuss any errors identified to reinforce their knowledge. Prompt reviews and amendments are made to procedures. This is in response to changes to the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support regulations.
6.6 Operational procedures include awareness training of all regulation changes. Changes requiring in-depth training are identified. Training material is prepared and presented to the Assessment team and any other impacted staff such as in Access Harrow.
6.7 Benefits Managers regularly clarify regulations changes with the DWP. They discuss interpretation of new law with practitioners in other LAs. This is achieved through networking with London Councils and attendance at external professional training events.
6.8 The Benefits IT system supplier receives prior notice of major changes to regulations. They discuss implications with the DWP before specifications are written for agreement by Users. The Benefits Service has representation on the Software Product Group. This enables it to influence future development of the software to support efficient and accurate service delivery. Test the Benefit IT system is used to calculate and store data.
6.9 The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support regulations change constantly. They require updates to software several times each year. The Council uses experienced staff to test all software before it is applied to the ‘live’ system. Any errors found are reported to the supplier who rewrites the software prior to ‘live’ loading.
6.10 The main change occurs in April each year, when the government uprates all benefit values. Testing continues for 10 weeks beforehand to ensure that changes are applied accurately.
6.11 The Benefit system works closely with the Council Tax and Housing departments throughout the year. They test any IT changes on either side that may impact interfaces between the two systems, particularly at annual billing.
6.12 Any errors found in the ‘live’ system are reported immediately to the supplier. Subsequently a priority rating is jointly agreed and applied to the error. The rating affects the timescale to receive revised software, and contingency plans are made to maintain claims in the meantime.
6.13 The Benefits service also works closely with its corporate IT supplier. This supports software changes and to ensures efficient systems support delivery. It also includes access to DWP systems both through automations and manual transactions.