The council does not process Universal Credit

REGARDING the letter about benefit waiting times, I am disappointed Coun Draycott repeated your inaccurate headline about waiting times for housing benefits and compound it by saying the council processed Universal Credit claims – we do not.

For clarity, and to repeat what we’ve already said, the council accepts its processing times for housing benefits last year were not good enough. However they were not the worst in the country as stated in the Echo headline and corrected a week letter

We took steps to address the matter last year and I am pleased to say the situation has improved.

Coun Draycott refers to the council’s processing of Universal Credit claims. That is simply wrong.

For clarity, Universal Credit is operated by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) which administers all claims. The council does administer housing benefits which most of our tenants still receive.

We work closely with colleagues at the DWP and always recognised that the introduction of Universal Credit would impact some residents and that’s why we trained staff to assist people with the changes. This was on top of the support offered by the DWP.

Coun Draycott calls to pause and dramatically rethink the Universal Credit policy, which I am assuming is directed at the Government, as it is not something we control.

What I would add is that the rollout of Universal Credit has been paused to give a year of consolidation and learning before the next phase of managed migration is started. A small pilot is being held in Harrogate and we are expecting to find out more in September.

I hope that helps.

Coun Leigh Harper-Davies, lead member for major contracts