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Automated Transfers to Local Authority Systems
We’ve recently heard of HB claims being suspended by an automated process, with no warning to the claimant. I gather from the council that ATLAS throws up a discrepancy, eg with a tax credit award, the HB claim is suspended, and it is then queued for the HB staff to manually examine and see what decision or enquiry needs to be made. Is this really how the system is meant to work, given that the number of suspended claims in the district is apparently running into the hundreds?
It can work in the way that the individual Council chooses.
In my LA we have chosen to fully automate the system so the new rates of Tax Credits are downloaded and HB/CTB recalculated and letters sent.
A lot of checking is being done but it all appears to be working very well indeed.
The only problem we are finding is that some customers are getting the revised HB/CTB letters before that actually receive their new Tax Credit notifications.
In my LA the ATLAS system loads the changes to tax credits and assessors check all the claims before assessing. we then write out for any info that the change in tax credits throws up. (lots of requests for child care we did not know about and for up to date payslips)
we occasionally need to suspend the claim mainly when the tax credits end because of a change in household.
I’ve just had a chat with our local office. They have just about cleared the backlog of suspended claims, but are anticipating another backlog of suspensions later this year when ATLAS starts starts feeding through other benefits apart from tax credits. They make the point that if they let the system automatically recalculate benefit there would be large numbers of claimants who, eg, falsely drop to zero tax credits at this time of year, due to renewal issues. On the other hand, ATLAS is also finding genuine longstanding overpayment situations. They would rather suspend claims and verify them before any implementing changes.
They make the point that if they let the system automatically recalculate benefit there would be large numbers of claimants who, eg, falsely drop to zero tax credits at this time of year, due to renewal issues.
The ATLAS system wants to take the tax credit end date back to April in these cases, causing large underpayments.
Thanks for the replies here. This thread, and a visit to the housing benefit office, have helped me understand some of the admin problems. I’m not sure that a claimant who’s benefit is suspended without warning will appreciate the complexities.
(Oh if only this multi-benefit system could somehow be replaced by some sort of credit that was universal ... )