DWP reveals 'huge differences' in time taken to process housing benefit claims » Bill payments » 24dash.com

Huge differences in the time taken to process housing benefit claims have been revealed by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Claimants living on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, have to wait an average of 72 days to receive payments, Junior Work and Pensions Minister Kitty Ussher said.

But claimants in St Albans, Hertfordshire, only need to wait an average of five days.

The huge disparity emerged in a Commons reply to shadow work and pensions minister Andrew Selous.

Ms Ussher named the ten local authorities that took the least time to process new claims for housing benefit in 2007/08, and the ten that took the most time.

St Albans was the fastest local authority. South Norfolk and Maidstone, Kent, both came next with an 11-day wait.

In comparison, claimants on the Isle of Anglesey fared the worst. People in Luton, Bedfordshire, had to wait 62 days for their claims to be processed.

And claimants in Rother, East Sussex, and East Devon waited an average of 49 days and 48 days respectively.

Other local authorities that took more than 41 days to process new claims include Ealing, Greater London; Blackpool, Lancashire; Blyth Valley, Northumberland; and Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear.

Local authorities that took less than 15 days to process the claims include Crawley, West Sussex; Tendring, Essex; South Lanarkshire, Scotland; and Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.

Ms Ussher said the data had been supplied to the DWP by local authorities and was unaudited. Where no data had been received for a particular quarter, the average annual performance was estimated from available data.