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The Local Government Ombudsman has just issued an interesting report containing Advice and guidance on arrangements for forwarding housing benefit appeals to the Appeals Service - see http://www.lgo.org.uk/pdf/sp-2-web.pdf for a copy of the report.
Amongst the findings are the Appeals Service (TAS) state that, for cases cleared between 1 April 2003 and 30 Septmber 2003, it had taken on average 24.9 weeks between the date the appeal was lodged with the council and its receipt by TAS. Further, TAS reported that, for HB cases cleared during this period, it took on average 11.6 weeks between receipt of the appeal papers from the council and the tribunal hearing. That makes the average waiting time for a housing benefit appeal to be lodged and heard clock in at an impressive 36.5 weeks - this for people who may well be at risk of eviction due to non-payment of rent.
The report makes a number of recommendations for councils including:
· ensure that adequate training is given to all staff to ensure that submissions are in proper order and contain all relevant paperwork, and that staff are reminded of the need for urgency in dealing with appeals;
· make sure that all correspondence on review and appeal requests is fast-tracked, and progress on each appeal case is monitored in order to help meet the four-week deadline;
· instigate a system which identifies and gives special priority to those cases where there are particularly difficult personal circumstances, such as a threat of eviction to the claimant;
· ensure the housing benefit and housing departments liaise where there is an outstanding appeal by a council tenant;
· maintain frequent – at least monthly – monitoring of numbers and waiting times for appeal submissions;
· act promptly where the number of appeals or the time taken appears to increase;
· make sure that they are not unnecessarily demanding fresh appeals or imposing further conditions before processing appeal requests, or seeking additional information at a late stage; and
· ensure that all enquiries about an appeal are responded to promptly.
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