Issue - meetings

Report FSD18080

The Committee considered a report which provided information regarding the performance of the benefits service provided by Liberata during the period 1 April 2018 to 30 September 2018.  A letter from Amanda Inwood-field, Liberata’s London Regional Contract Director, providing Liberata’s perspective on performance, together with an update on initiatives to be introduced in the coming months was attached to the report.

In opening the discussion the Chairman noted that good progress had bene made and that the targets were moving in the right direction with the report indicating that the contract was working well.

In response to a question the Committee was informed that a project targeting Temporary Accommodation cases had been undertaken earlier in the year and as part of the project Liberata staff had been proactively engaging with individuals.  The project had a positive impact which has resulted in  an increase in the number of new claims; the additional time taken to process the new claims was reflected in the claim processing figures for June and July 2018.

The Head of Revenues and Benefits reported that in terms of Members being able to objectively assess whether a good service was being delivered, the appendix to the report provided a comparison with other London boroughs.  There were no detailed statistics concerning the costs per claim to enable benchmarking; however, the Head of Revenues and Benefits stated that informal evidence suggested that those authorities that performed better spent more on delivering the service.

Turing to the issue of Budgeting Support to those on Universal Credit being provided by Bromley Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and their partnership between the DWP and Bromley CAB ; the Head of Revenues and Benefits confirmed that the decision that Local Authorities would no longer have a role in assisting their residents had been taken by the DWP.  The Head of Revenues and Benefits suggested that the CAB were in a difficult position as they were working for the DWP and as a result of this there could be some conflict meaning that some residents may continue to approach the Local Authority for advice and support.

In response to a question from the Vice-Chairman, the Head of Revenues and Benefits confirmed that work was underway in terms of procurement processes for the new contract, timescales were in place and the new contract would be delivered on time.

RESOLVED: That the report and the letter provided by Liberata be noted.