AT a seminar today, county councillors were told that the ongoing merging of the benefits systems of the former district councils still means that there was a back log of over 3700 cases to deal with.

The average length of time taken to process a new claim is now 66.5 days.  I honestly believe that whilst officers and staff are working flat out, the political oversight of this process by the leading Labour group has been completely unacceptable. Labour accepts this and should apologise for the continued problems it foisted on this county with Local Government Review (Scrapping the District Council).

The council has to date outsourced the processing of over 4000 cases, allowing it to deal with the backlog, which we are told will take until Mid-March/April to clear up. Due to the way that claims are processed and the information required, it is likely that there will always be around 1000-1500 claims being dealt with at any one time. I look forward to the day when as promised it only takes a few weeks to deal with each case.

This has affected benefit recipients, landlords and social housing providers to the point of being critical. It shows what happens when a Labour administration doesn’t get to grips with things. All credit to the staff and senior officers who have had to work through this and the accompanying political ineptitude.

If anyone in Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me, Brasside, Bearpark or Witton Gilbert is having problems with changes to claims or with new claims, please do get in touch and I will see what I can do to help.