Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Finance, Revenues and Benefits

The Committee received the report (as set out on pages 41- 45) which asked it to note the activity within the Revenues and Benefits service area during the second quarter of 2018/19 and the progress of Universal Credit implementation.

It was highlighted to Members that due to staffing issues, there had been a slight decline in the collection rate for council tax, however Officers assured the Committee that plans were in place to bring this back under control. In contrast to this, the Benefits section was shown to have continued to perform strongly with an average process time of 14.45 days for new claims.

Members were advised that with regards to Universal Credit, activity surrounding the service had increased. In addition to the recruitment of a second Rent Income Officer, the service was designating further resources on the “Welfare” aspect of the service through the re-design of a job post within the department.

In addition to this, Members queried the legality of the Council’s ability for it to access information from other service departments to determine whether an individual met the requirements of managed payments. It was confirmed by the Head of Law and Governance that, as advised by the Information Commissioner’s guidance, information can be obtained through extracting data from internal data systems, so long as the collated information stays with the Council and there was a secondary lawful basis for doing so.

By affirmation of the meeting, it was

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED THAT:

That the contents of the report be noted.