Issue - meetings

Report FSD16005

The Committee received a report on the performance of the Benefits Service provided by Liberata covering the period from 1^st April to 30^th September 2015. A letter from Liberata’s Contract Director, Amanda Inwood-Field, was included with the report, and she attended the meeting with other senior managers from Liberata. Speed of claim processing was within the 13 day target, and performance on error rates had improved since 2014/15, with only one month outside the 5% tolerance level within this reporting period.

At the request of Councillor Ian Dunn, an Internal Audit report on a review of the contract issued on 12^th November 2015 had been circulated.

Members requested that, for the next report, DWP information on speed of processing for Outer London authorities be included. Another Member commented that the KPIs in the contract did not appear to be monitored in the report, and suggested that the construction of the report should be reviewed.

Universal Credit was due to start to be rolled out in Bromley on 18^th January 2016, initially just for new claims from some single people. It was confirmed that Library staff were receiving training, and it was hoped that a Member seminar could be arranged with the DWP.

Members noted that government funding for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) had reduced to £563,127 for 2015/16. A Member commented that the wording in the report that the level of certain awards would have to be “restricted” was misleading, as each case was looked at on its merits. 

It was confirmed that the authority had not lost any DWP subsidy due to overpayments. 

RESOLVED that the information contained in the report be noted.