Prompt Assessment and Refund

Claim 31836

  • Information received from Pension Credit led the department to believe that a 90 year old single woman may be entitled to benefit.   The Authority sent her a take up letter
  • The woman asked for a visit, and one was arranged for 12:00 on 10th November 2009
  • We finished the visit and welfare check at 12:30, and we took the claim with supporting documents to the customer centre, where we scanned them at 12:43, before returning the originals by hand
  • We assessed the claim at 17:50 on the same day (10th November 2009)
  • We posted the Council Tax Benefit to the Council Tax account that evening
  • The Authority created a new bill that evening as part of the automated process
  • We refunded the money  by BACS on 11th November 2009.

Conclusion

  • A take up initiative resulted in the Authority visiting at a time convenient to the customer.
  • We scanned the supporting documents with the application, and returned to the customer’s home within the hour.
  • We assessed the claim within a little over five hours
  • We sent a refund to the customer the next day