The Council has agreed to invest in its Benefits Service, as part of a detailed improvement plan which will boost efficiency. Improvements in performance have already been recorded. In August new claims were taking an average of 31 days to process, but in December that has fallen to just 20 days.

All new benefit applications are also now being worked on within seven days of being received and customers receive their benefits soon after their application is complete. Customers can help the Council to process their applications even faster by providing all of the necessary supporting information as quickly as possible.

Additional staff are being recruited to help sustain these improvements in performance. One appointment has been made and other posts are currently being advertised. Independent experts are also working with benefits staff to help further improve the processes used to administer benefits.

Commented Ashfield District Council's Head of Customer, IT and Revenue Services, Gareth Bott: "My team is working hard to identify efficiencies and improvements across our benefits service and, as a result, a number of changes are being put into place. It is rewarding to see that, even at this early stage of our improvement plan, performance has greatly improved and we are sure our service users will be experiencing a marked difference."