Benefits Open
Afternoon
Back in May of
this year we held an open afternoon at the City Offices. The purpose
of the open afternoon was to try and establish a working group between
Winchester City Council and various other organisations in the area to
encourage people who are not already doing so to claim Housing and/or
Council Tax Benefit. In addition we hoped it could highlight any
parts of the service we provide where improvements could be made and
problems/solutions could be discussed which would benefit both the
claimants and the organisations.
Attendees included Citizens Advice Bureau,
Hampshire County Council and Winchester Area Community Action
(WACA).
It was a good opportunity to find out what
everyone is working on at the moment and highlight any areas where we can
work together in the future. There were also a couple of suggestions
for improvement which we are currently working on.
If you would like a copy of the minutes of
this meeting please contact Lisa Chaffey or Judith Hubbard, Benefits Team
Leaders on 01962 848 495.
Benefit Checkers
We have produced some benefit checkers which we hope
will assist people to obtain an estimate of the amount of Housing Benefit
and/or Council Tax Benefit they may be entitled to. The checkers are
A5 in size and provide an easy to use table. Across the top are
various household statuses (e.g. couple with 2 children under 16) and down
the side are various weekly rents or council tax bands. Customers
just need to match their household circumstances with their weekly rent or
council tax and if their income is close to or below the figures – make a
claim.
If you would like some of these checkers to
pass on to your customers please contact Lisa Chaffey or Judith Hubbard,
Benefits Team Leaders on 01962 848 495.
Changes to Local Housing
Allowance
In the Emergency Budget on 22 June 2010, the
Government announced the following changes to the Local Housing Allowance
(LHA). No regulations have been amended as yet:
From April
2011:
- Removal of the five bedroom LHA rate so that the maximum level is
for a four bedroom property
- Introduce absolute caps so that LHA rates cannot exceed:
- £250 for a one bedroom property
- £290 for a two bedroom property
- £340 for a three bedroom property
- £400 for a four bedroom property
In addition, the £15 weekly excess (“top up”)
that some customers can receive under the LHA arrangements will be
removed.
From October
2011:
- Set LHA rates so that 30% of properties will be available to HB
customers in each Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA) rather than the 50%
which are available at the moment.
These changes will apply to new customers
from the date they come into effect and to existing customers from the
anniversary of their claim unless they have a change of circumstances
which requires us to re-determine their claim sooner.
Performance of the team
this year so far…
- Processing new benefit claims in an average of 14 calendar days
- Processing change in circumstances in an average of 6 calendar days
- Answering 97.91% of telephone calls within 20 seconds
- Responding to the 4500 customers who have visited our offices since
April in an average of 4 minutes
Customer
Satisfaction
Every 3 years
we send a customer satisfaction survey to customers who have made a claim
or reported a change in circumstances during 2 sample windows (June/July
and November/December). This survey was sent to customers during the
sample windows in 2009 and we now have the results.
| Facilities to get
in touch with the office |
84% |
88% |
| Service in the
office |
86% |
88% |
| Telephone
service |
82% |
82% |
| Staff in the
office |
86% |
86% |
| Clarity of
publications and letters |
57% |
58% |
| Time it took to say
whether the claim was successful |
78% |
84% |
As you can see, satisfaction has
increased or stayed the same in every area and we are really pleased with
the results. We have also collated all of the comments that
customers made on the survey and have drafted an action plan that we are
currently working through.
