A more efficient housing benefit service at Luton Borough Council

Civica OnDemand helps Luton quickly clear a processing backlog and align assessment times with national averages

Vacancies in Luton Borough Council’s housing benefit team had led to an assessment backlog of some 4,000 new claims and notifications of changed circumstances. One of the factors making it diffcult to recruit new permanent staff was the approaching rollout of Universal Credit.

Civica OnDemand cleared the backlog within 12 weeks, giving Luton Borough Council the capacity it needed to deliver other critical aspects of its improvement plan.

• Capacity freed up to deliver broader improvements, including increased automation and customer self-service, and additional training for Luton staff
• Processing times for new housing benefit claims and changes of circumstances halved to reach national averages
• Ongoing resilience with access to a team of skilled housing benefit specialists that can quickly flex to meet changing needs
• Trust in the Civica OnDemand team to handle discretionary housing payment claims
• Winner of the IRRV ‘Most Improved Team of the Year’ award.

Cutting our housing benefit claim processing times in half and virtually matching the national averages is an amazing achievement. We couldn’t have done it without the support of Civica OnDemand."

 Clive Jones, Revenues and Benefits Manager, Luton Borough Council

Read more