Issue - meetings

Mr Barber introduced this item.

Ms Morgan commented on the Grant Certification Letter issued on the 25 January 2018. Members noted that as a result of errors identified the Housing Benefit subsidy claim for 2016/17 was amended and qualified, though the financial impact of the error was relatively insignificant in relation to the total subsidy receivable. The number of errors, however, was quite high. She drew attention to the details of errors identified (agenda pages 13-14) and the recommendation that the Council should, as part of its internal quality assurance process, increase its focus or level of testing in the areas where errors had been identified.

A Member said that while the Council was fully prepared to accept criticism and to strive to improve its processes, he was concerned that the manner in which the information about errors was presented could create an unduly negative impression. It was a question of balance: the total extrapolated error was exceedingly small when expressed as a proportion of the total Housing Benefit subsidy claim. Public concern should not be aroused when it was not justified. Mr Barber responded that the Member had raised a very valid point, and in fact the Certification Letter stated in its fourth paragraph: “The extrapolated financial impact on the claim, which we have reported to the DWP, was relatively insignificant in relation to the total subsidy receivable”. However, the external auditors had a duty to report all Housing Benefit errors to the DWP, irrespective of their amount. Moreover the quantum and rate of error in Bath and North East Somerset was greater than he had seen elsewhere, and the direction of travel gave cause for concern, in that the number of errors had increased in successive years.

The Divisional Director – Business Support assured Members that the problems identified by the External Auditors were being addressed. The claims process had been reviewed, the amount of claim testing had been increased, with senior officers carrying out checks, there was now a training calendar for staff, and a quality dashboard had been introduced to ensure that improvements were made.

A Member said that the emphasis in the discussion had been on getting payments right from an accounting point of view. However, it should not be forgotten that it was important to get payments right in the interest of claimants, who needed these payments to get by, and did not have the flexibility in their personal budgets to be able to repay overpayments easily. It was important for them that both under- and over-payments were minimised. In response to a question from another Member, the Divisional Director – Business Support explained that overpayments made as a result of an error by the local authority could not be recovered from the claimant.

A Member asked whether there was any data showing how the roll out of Universal Credit was impacting on the error rates of different local authorities. Mr Barber replied that he was not aware of any. The Divisional Director –  ...  view the full minutes text for item 179