Section: Benefits & Grants

Audit Commission Takes Control of Benefits Inspection

The Government's inspection and assessment of Housing and Council Tax Benefits transferred from the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) to the Audit Commission, as a result of proposals in the Local Government White Paper of 2006.

The Commission is now developing a comprehensive framework to deal with benefit fraud that recognises the contribution benefit services make to the social and economic wellbeing of local areas, as well as how this fits in with local authority strategies to address poverty, deprivation, homelessness and unemployment.

The inspection framework will apply more challenging assessment criteria than was the case under the BFI and assess performance from the users' perspective, with less emphasis on process.

The Commission's approach to inspecting Benefits services has been piloted with nine councils and the key lines of enquiry have been refined in consultation with local and central government. The Commission will inspect on a risk basis, in line with the principles behind the new Comprehensive Area Assessment framework for local services.

Local Housing Allowance Goes National

Launching the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) nationally, the Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, Stephen Timms said:

"The LHA is a central part of the Government's wider programme of benefit reform. It's a radical change to the way Housing Benefit is paid in the private rented sector and will help people take action towards managing their own bank accounts, making it easier for them to move off benefits and in to work.

"Having a bank account means that people are job-ready and the LHA will help towards bringing increased responsibility to hundreds of thousands of people."

Under the new system, benefit will be paid directly to the claimant to encourage them to take more personal control over their financial affairs. There will be safeguards in place for those tenants who need more support in managing their own budgets.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) will apply to private sector tenants who make a new claim for benefit and for existing tenants who move address, on or after 7 April 2008. It applies to tenants in the de-regulated private rented sector only.

Designed to be simpler and to increase choice and responsibility for tenants, the LHA is a flat rate of Housing Benefit which varies according to the size of household and the area in which the customer lives.

The LHA has already been introduced in 18 local authorities. Nine pathfinder authorities introduced it in 2003/04 and these were subject to extensive and independent evaluation. A further nine authorities implemented the LHA in 2005 to test the efficiency of the scheme.

KeyFacts

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Reporting on April 2008

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