Via Email
/ This matter is being dealt with by:
Amanda Apcar
Telephone: / 01353665555
E-mail: /
My Ref: / AJA/11/12-664
Your ref
07 February 2012
Dear Ms Kempin
Review of response to Request 10025-3-11/12-599
On the 6 December 2011 this Council received a request under the Freedom of Infromation Act from Mrs Kempin to obtain some information about housing benefit (HB) claims in your Council’s area. For clarification, the meaning of ‘monthly’ in this request is the generally- and legally-accepted meaning, ie calendar-monthly and set out 27 Questions.
A response to the request dated 9 January 2012 was provided as follows:
1. How many households in the Council’s area are in receipt of HB? 4180
2. What is the total weekly benefit entitlement (in pounds sterling) of all HB claimants in the Council’s area? £376,481
The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/213/contents/made) came into force on 6 March 2006. They include provision for HB claimants who pay rent monthly to receive monthly HB payments (Regulation 91).
3. When did the Council become capable of making monthly payments of HB
i) If this was after March 2006, why was there a delay in enabling monthly benefit payments?
ii) What adjustments to the computer system were required to
facilitate monthly payments?
iii) What testing of the computer system was required to ensure
monthly payments were administered correctly?
iv) How long did take it to implement the adjustments and testing
necessary to ensure correct administration of monthly payments?
v) Has the Council experienced any problems with the administration
of monthly benefit payments? If so, please give details.
i)The facility to pay calendar monthly has always been available,
ii)None
iii)Testing was undertaken around the payment, calculation, backdated adjustments of benefit entitlement and production of letters.
iv)The time taken to test was not recorded.
v)The testing found that in order to pay calendar monthly, the amount would vary on a month by month basis dependant on number of days in that particular month and that the date on which it would be paid would not be the same day. A complaint has been made to the Local Government Ombudsman in respect of monthly payments, part of which was the payment not being made on the same day each month. The Ombudsman was happy however that the procedures put in place to ensure that the housing benefit was paid before the rent was due were sufficient.
4. How many new claims for HB has the Council approved since 1 January 2011
This information is not recorded specifically for Housing benefit as it is a combined claim form with Council Tax. However the total number of new claims where decisions have been made for this period totals 3102
5. Of the new claimants, how many have their HB paid:
i) four-weekly?
ii) monthly?
All new claims are set to pay at 4 weekly intervals as benefit is calculated on a weekly basis. However the regulation 91 (1) implies that if the authority’s choice of time and method is not appropriate it may be challenged. as provided by regulation 92.
6. Of the new claimants, how many are liable for rent:
i) four-weekly?
ii) monthly?
Exempt - See notes
7. What factors does the Council take into account when considering the frequency at which it will pay HB to a claimant?
Claims are set to pay at 4 weekly intervals as benefitis calculated on a weekly basis. However the regulation 91 (1) implies that if the authority’s choice of time and method is not appropriate it may be challenged. as provided by regulation 92.
8. How and when are claimants informed that HB can be paid monthly?
There is no requirement to make claimants aware however all our notification letter invite the customer to contact us if they have any questions or need any explanation.
9. How many requests for HB to be paid monthly has the Council received since March 2006?
Exempt – see notes
10. Of these requests, how many were:
i) ignored?
ii) refused?
iii) agreed to?
See answers to Q3 and Q9
11. On what grounds were requests for monthly benefit payment:
i) ignored?
ii) refused?
iii) agreed to?
See above
The one case where discretion was used was to enable the claimant to manage their financial affairs without causing them hardship.
12. What is the average time between a claimant’s first request for
monthly payment and the Council agreeing to the request?
Our average number of days for change requests are currently within 9 days, however, this is for any change request. Requests specifically around rent changes are not recorded separately.
13. How many current HB claimants are liable for rent:
i) four-weekly
ii) monthly?
Exempt – see notes
14. How many current HB claimants have their HB paid:
i) four-weekly? 3982
ii) monthly? 1
15. How many HB claimants are liable for rent monthly and receive (or their landlord receives) HB four- weekly?
i) What is the total weekly benefit entitlement of all those claimants? Exempt – see notes
16. How many claimants have their benefit paid direct to their landlord? 3168
i) Why is benefit paid direct to landlords?
ii) Are landlords satisfied with the arrangements? Exempt – see notes
17. How is benefit (in particular, the daily, weekly and, where applicable, monthly amounts of benefit) calculated for claimants
who:
i) receive benefit four-weekly and are liable for rent four-weekly?
ii) receive benefit four-weekly and are liable for rent monthly?
iii) receive benefit monthly and are liable for rent monthly?
This information is in the public domain - Please refer to the Housing Benefit Regulations.
18. Four-weekly benefit payments can never be synchronised with monthly rent payments. As a result, when a claimant’s rent is due, there will almost always be a shortfall in the amount of benefit received. Since March 2006:
i) how many claimants have experienced problems paying their rent
in full and/or on time because their HB is/was paid four-weekly and
they are/were liable for rent monthly?
ii) how many claimants have experienced general financial
difficulties because their HB is/was paid four-weekly and they
are/were liable for rent monthly?
iii) how many landlords of HB claimants have experienced problems
or have made complaints because rent cannot be/is not paid on time
and/or in full due to the lack of synchronisation between
claimants’ four-weekly benefit payments and monthly rent liability.
This information is not known
19. What computer software does the Council use to administer HB?
Capita Software Services (Academy)
20. Please provide a screenprint of the software. Exempt – There are too many screens to obtain prints of all of them,
21. When did the Council begin using the software? 1 April 2000
22. Which company provides the software? See 19
23. How and why was the software and company chosen?
Capita took over as the Revenues & Benefits service provider 1 April 2000. They converted the Council to the Academy system as part of this contract.
24. How much did/does the software cost the Council? This agreement is commercial in confidence and cannot be disclosed.
25. Is the Council satisfied with:
i) the software? Yes
ii) the service provided by the software company? Yes
26. If the Council is not satisfied, are there any plans to rectify this situation?
i) If any there are any plans to rectify problems, please give
details. Not Applicable
With reference to Question 27, other authorities have noted use of various guidance on housing benefit, for example:
DWP guidance
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/local-authority-staff/housing-benefit/
IRRV HB/CTB Law and Administration ISBN 978-1-905782-50-5
2011-12 Guide to Housing and Council Tax Benefit - Martin Ward, Sam
Lister, John Zebedee
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Legislation - Child Poverty
Action Group
Does East Cambridgeshire DC use any of these publications?
Claims are processed in accordance with the legislation that is already available in the public domain
Notes
Some of the information that you have asked for would require a member of staff to look at every claim individually because the information is not held in a format that would enable a report to run. It would therefore take over 18 hours to obtain this information and therefore is exempt.
The time taken to extract the data that has been provided above has already taken in excess of 18 hours in staff time, therefore no due diligence has been carried out.
On the 10 January 2012 the Council received a request for a review of the response provided as follows:
I would like to request an internal review of East Cambridgeshire DC's response, because some questions have been answered inadequately, and many of the questions have not been answered at all, instead it is frequently stated "Exempt – see notes". The explanation in the notes is not satisfactory. In addition, the second paragraph of the notes is difficult to interpret. It reads:
"The time taken to extract the data that has been provided above has already taken in excess of 18 hours in staff time, therefore no due diligence has been carried out on the figures quoted." It seems to say that East Cambridgeshire DC has spent over 18 hours gathering the data, although using about twice as many words as necessary. The statement continues "therefore no due diligence has been carried out on the figures quoted". Please explain the meaning of this phrase.
It is clear that there has been some collaboration between Breckland, East Cambridgeshire, Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury district councils (the four authorities of Anglia Revenues Partnership) in responding to my request (also made to various other authorities), because the text replies are identical or very similar.
Please note that the 18-hour limit on staff time to be spent on FoI requests applies per request, per Authority, it is not to be used as a cumulative total where numerous authorities are able to combine resources. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect the four authorities within ARP to each spend up to 18 hours gathering the information requested.
Moreover, the information requested ought to be easy to extract from the Council's database using straightforward database queries. Other authorities have provided the information I have asked for, and it seems reasonable to expect East Cambridgeshire DC to do likewise.
The specific problems with East Cambridgeshire DC's response to my request relate to:
Question 4
East Cambridgeshire DC states that the number of new housing benefit claims cannot be provided because the claim form is combined with that for council tax benefit. This is not a satisfactory explanation. It must be possible to obtain simple data on housing benefit, such as the number of new claims since 1 January 2011, for example by using a simple database query.
Questions 5 i & ii, 6 i & ii, 13 i & ii, 15 & 15 i
Please provide the figures requested. It should be possible to obtain them from electronic records of housing benefit claimants using simple database queries. Indeed, I note that the Academy software used by East Cambridgeshire DC facilitates the use of SQL queries to interrogate the database.
Therefore, it must be relatively quick and easy to extract the information requested from the Council's records.
Question 17
East Cambridgeshire DC states that this information is already in the public domain. However, I have read the regulations and cannot see where it states the specific methods of calculating daily and
weekly amounts of benefit. In any case, I would like confirmation of the methods of calculation used by East Cambridgeshire DC. Please tell me the methods used, and ensure you give the exact method used by the software, and not an assumption based on the
legislation and/or guidance.
For clarification, the Council will need to know daily amounts of benefit because they will be needed (regardless of payment frequency) when paying a part week, eg when a claim starts or ends part way through a benefit week, or when a claimant's circumstances change part way through a benefit week. Possible calculation methods (disregarding any deductions, LHA limits, etc which may apply) are shown below.
Question 17 reads:
How is benefit (in particular, the daily, weekly and, where applicable, monthly amounts of benefit) calculated for claimants who:
i) receive benefit four-weekly and are liable for rent four-weekly?
[For example, daily benefit might be calculated as weekly benefit divided by 7, or some other method.]
ii) receive benefit four-weekly and are liable for rent monthly?
[For example, weekly benefit might be calculated as monthly rent multiplied by 12 divided by 52, or some other method; daily benefit might be calculated as weekly benefit divided by 7, or weekly
benefit multiplied by 52 divided by 365, or some other method.]
iii) receive benefit monthly and are liable for rent monthly?
[Noted that this is not applicable because East Cambridgeshire DC does not make monthly payments.]
An email times at 17:00 was received and stated “Please find below an amendment to my message sent earlier today and read as follows:
Question 17, section iii) should read as follows:
"iii) receive benefit monthly and are liable for rent monthly?
[For example, monthly benefit may be equal to monthly rent, or may be calculated as monthly rent multiplied by 12, divided by 365, multiplied by the number of days in the month for which benefit is being paid.]"
With reference to Question 20, regarding a screenprint of the software, please provide a print of one screen, eg the start page of the software, from where the user might choose various options,
eg add a new claim, amend an existing claim, etc.
With reference to Question 23, regarding the choice of software provider, please tell me how and why Capita was chosen to manage the Revenues and Benefits service.
With reference to Question 24, regarding the cost of the software, other authorities have provided this information. Please specify the:
i) original purchase price; and
ii) annual maintenance costs.
With reference to Question 27, other authorities have noted use of various guidance on housing benefit, for example:
DWP guidance
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/local-authority-staff/housing-benefit/
IRRV HB/CTB Law and Administration ISBN 978-1-905782-50-5
2011-12 Guide to Housing and Council Tax Benefit - Martin Ward, Sam
Lister, John Zebedee
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Legislation - Child Poverty
Action Group
Does East Cambridgeshire DC use any of these publications?
I now provide the response to the request for a review:
Second paragraph of the notes:
The time taken to extract the data that has been provided above has already taken in excess of 18 hours in staff time, therefore no due diligence has been carried out.
Response
The note was used in the response to explain to that an exercise had not been taken by the Council to check the accuracy of the figures that were provided as response to questions 1,2,4,14 and 16 as it would take in excess of 18 hours to do so. The Council therefore applied section 12 of the Act.
Section 12 of the Act provides that the Council is not obliged to comply with a request for information if it estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is £450.00 for local authorities that this by legislation and is currently calculated on the basis of one officer working at £25.00 per hour (i.e. 18 hours).
In estimating whether complying with a request would exceed the appropriate limit, Regulation 4 (3) states that an authority is only required to estimate the cost of complying with the request and if it exceeds the limit. I can take into account the costs it reasonably expects to incur in:
• determining whether it holds the information;
• locating the information, or a document containing it;
• retrieving the information, or a document containing it; and
• extracting the information from a document containing it.
An authority can take into account the costs attributable to the time that persons (both the authority’s staff and external contractors) are expected to spend on these activities.
Question 4
East Cambridgeshire DC states that the number of new housing benefit claims cannot be provided because the claim form is combined with that for council tax benefit. This is not a satisfactory explanation. It must be possible to obtain simple data on housing benefit, such as the number of new claims since 1 January 2011, for example by using a simple database query.
Response
The Council does have this information but it is not easy to extract. In addition, the requestor has not specified what is meant by “new claim” A report can be run that will identify all claims where either a claim has never been made before or no benefit has been in payment within the previous 4 weeks.
A manual process with then have to be undertaken to identify which claims were just housing benefit specific as claims could be just for Council Tax, just for Housing Benefit or for both and then sort according to the requestors clarification.
For info – the number of claims that would need to be looked through is approx:
Breckland: 6500
East Cambs: 3100
Forest Heath: 3000
St Eds: 2200 (only recorded from August 2011)
Questions 5 i & ii, 6 i & ii, 13 i & ii, 15 & 15 i
Please provide the figures requested. It should be possible to obtain them from electronic records of housing benefit claimants using simple database queries. Indeed, I note that the Academy software used by East Cambridgeshire DC facilitates the use of SQL queries to interrogate the database.
Therefore, it must be relatively quick and easy to extract the information requested from the Council's records.
Responses
Questions 5 I & ii
Again we come back to the definition of a new claim. Once that is established, it would require manual intervention to sort through the claims to establish payment frequency. The law states that some claims have to be paid weekly, others may be paid fortnightly. In the main, payments are made 4 weekly in arrears