A look into the way that Housing Benefits managers have designed the service around looking good in the Audit Commission Comprehensive Performance Assessment (and therefore the press releases) rather than what claimants need.
Its a bit of a techy one this one I'm afraid so prop your eyelids open with matches.
I've been having a look into the ways that the Housing Benefits service has improved certain aspects of its service while pretty much ignoring others and how those improved aspects coincidently figure highly in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment carried out by the Audit Commission.
Essentially, the previous issues I've been banging on about ie Discretionary Housing Payments and illegal decision notices don't even figure in the CPA. Also speed of decision making, which NCC are pretty good at, is very highly weighted whereas accuracy, which it is crap, only gets a low rating.
In fact, NCC got the lowest accuracy rates in the whole of the East Midlands in 2007/8.
More here
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2009/02/housing-benefits-and-comprehensive.html
I've been having a look into the ways that the Housing Benefits service has improved certain aspects of its service while pretty much ignoring others and how those improved aspects coincidently figure highly in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment carried out by the Audit Commission.
Essentially, the previous issues I've been banging on about ie Discretionary Housing Payments and illegal decision notices don't even figure in the CPA. Also speed of decision making, which NCC are pretty good at, is very highly weighted whereas accuracy, which it is crap, only gets a low rating.
In fact, NCC got the lowest accuracy rates in the whole of the East Midlands in 2007/8.
More here
http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2009/02/housing-benefits-and-comprehensive.html