Speed isn’t everything, but for benefits processing it matters a lot
Once again, the local authorities that use our benefits software are processing claims on average faster than others. We explain the work that goes into getting this right and why we’re still working hard to speed things up.
Local authority revenues and benefits departments are under huge pressure, although you’d struggle to remember a time when they weren’t. Balancing shrinking budgets against growing demand is a daily challenge for these busy teams. Every council uses some form of technology to assess all claims and changes in circumstances relating to housing benefit, but with the volume of work rising all the time, how well it works really matters.
Accelerating speed of processing
The Department for Work and Pensions publishes statistics on speed of processing every quarter, with the most recent data released in October 2024 (covering the period April to June). This shows that while there only 100,000 new claims for housing benefit, due to the roll out of Universal Credit, there were still 1.4 million changes to existing claims. Each change needs to be reviewed and verified – with all the right supporting documentation – before any change to the payment is confirmed.
Across England, Wales and Scotland, our customers processed claims and changes faster than other authorities. In fact, our customers have been faster for the last 10 years and were 1.5 days faster this year than they were the year before.
Focusing on ease and accuracy
When we look at speed, we’re not talking about how quickly a system’s pages load, although we all know how annoying it is when something runs slow. It’s about how quickly you can get through your caseload because the system works in the way you want it to and how confident you are in every decision. The result is less pressure on dwindling resources and much-needed support arriving on time.
We’re proud of the hard work and dedication of our revenues and benefits experts, but we never stop trying to do more. When legislation shifts continuously – and there are big changes on the horizon – it comes down to understanding the impact on working practices and developing timely solutions that keep productivity high.
Striving for continuous improvement
We’re always looking for opportunities to change what our software does, and how it does it, to make users’ lives easier. In the past few years, we’ve overhauled the look and feel, added popular self-service apps and developed analytics tools to help with managing debt. We also stay close to our customers through regular user groups and consider challenges and opportunities on our Ideas Portal.
What we don’t do is make big changes without consultation or careful planning. But we will keep looking for improvements wherever we can, no matter how fast we get.
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Find out more about our work in revenue and benefits.
