At yesterdays Corporate Issues Scrutiny, one of the Labour councillors tried to blame the coalition government for the atrocious delays in processing benefits claims for housing and council tax in County Durham.

This was a disgraceful attempt to hide the truth of a council in chaos. Three years in to a new authority, and vulnerable people are waiting on average 33 days for a new benefits claim to be processed – that means some are waiting much longer. This is almost entirely down to the failure to sort out the computer systems and the bringing together of the now defunct district councils.

Council officers admit the chaos, and hope to have everything merged onto one system by December,  some Labour councillors, like Councillor Joe Armstrong are living in denial however. They try to blame an increased workload, the reality is complete failure to get to grips with running the Council

Labour councillors would be wise to think how they would feel if after over a month their benefits claims were still not processed and they were threatened with eviction because of council incompetence. Perhaps in a couple of years time some of these councillors will be out of a job for forcing this County Council on us and failing to make it work properly!