APPENDIX A Clackmannanshire Council. Audit of housing and council tax benefit. Risk assessment report

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1 APPENDIX A Clackmannanshire Council Audit of housing and council tax benefit Risk assessment report Prepared for Clackmannanshire Council November

2 Audit Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000 under the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act It provides services to the Auditor General for Scotland and the Accounts Commission. Together they ensure that the Scottish Government and public sector bodies in Scotland are held to account for the proper, efficient and effective use of public funds 20

3 Contents Introduction...2 Executive summary...2 Welfare Reform...4 Business Planning...6 Performance reporting...7 Meeting the needs of the user and the community...8 Delivering outcomes...10 Speed of processing...10 Accuracy...12 Interventions...13 Overpayments...14 Appeals and Reconsiderations...16 Counter-fraud...16 Appendix A

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5 Introduction 1. This risk assessment was completed as part of Audit Scotland s housing benefit/council tax benefit (HB/CTB) risk assessment programme. It does not represent a full audit of Clackmannanshire council s benefits service. 2. The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 introduced new statutory duties relating to Best Value and Community Planning. The key objective of the risk assessment is to determine the extent to which the benefits service is meeting its obligations to achieve continuous improvement in all its activities. 3. Specifically, the risk assessment considers the effectiveness of the benefits service in meeting the needs of the community and its customers, and delivering outcomes. 4. Information for this risk assessment was gathered from a range of sources including: the self-assessment, supporting evidence, and updated action plan provided by the council Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) indicators and other performance measures scrutiny of internal and external audit reports discussions with the appointed external auditor discussions with senior officers in the council during our site visit in October Executive summary 5. A risk assessment was previously carried out on Clackmannanshire council s benefits service in November 2008 when Audit Scotland identified 32 risks to continuous improvement. These were reported to the Chief Executive in December The council submitted an action plan in January 2009 to address these risks which Audit Scotland accepted as satisfactory, if fully implemented. 6. There have been some significant changes in the council since our last visit in The service has been through a period of restructuring in the last two years which was ongoing at the time of our on-site visit. During this time the benefits service has also been relocated, and is due to be relocated again in 2013/ In August 2012, the council submitted a current self-assessment along with supporting evidence, and an updated action plan. Of the 32 risks identified, the council has made significant progress: 22 actions fully completed 3 actions on-going 7 actions outstanding. Appendix A covers this in detail. 23

6 8. In completing, or partially completing, 25 of these risks, the council has made a positive contribution to the delivery of the benefits service. In particular, by: developing a Benefits Team Business Plan 2012/13 which set out the aims and objectives of the service, and which has links to other key strategic documents to demonstrate how the service will contribute to the wider corporate, strategic and community aims implementing an online performance management system which, by 31 December 2012, will allow the benefits service to increase the level and type of information currently being reported to senior management and members providing direct access to benefits information from the council website homepage, and improving the level of information available to customers delivering an excellent performance in claims processing between 2009/10 and 2011/12, and continuously improving the time taken to process new claims during this period having a dedicated overpayments recovery officer, and making good use of all recovery options including the recovery of overpayments from ongoing deductions in respect of council tenants. This approach has helped the council to deliver continuous improvement in the value of in-year debt recovery having a clear sanction decision making process, and carrying out joint investigations with the DWP's Fraud Investigation Service (FIS). 9. Although the council demonstrates awareness of what constitutes an effective, efficient and secure benefits service, there are seven risks outstanding and three risks where action is ongoing from our previous risk assessment. In order to ensure continuous improvement, the council needs to address these risks, and the new risks identified. These include: resolving the issues that have resulted in a backlog of work which is having a direct impact on the time taken to process new claims and changes of circumstances ensuring that actions required to prepare the council for the changes arising from the welfare reform agenda are fully recorded on the welfare reform action plan, and that progress against the plan is regularly monitored and reported extending the current performance management framework to include regular reporting of performance to senior management and/or members against all aspects of the benefits service developing and publicising customer service targets, and regularly monitoring and reporting performance ensuring that the fraud team has the capacity to deal with the expected increase in investigations resulting from the annual single person discount review establishing the reasons for the discrepancy in the value of overpayments outstanding at April 2012, and improving performance in the recovery of all debt outstanding routinely publicising the outcome of prosecutions and counter-fraud initiatives, and ensuring that the council website contains current and relevant information on the work of the fraud team. 24

7 Welfare Reform 10. In November 2010 the UK Government published a White Paper Universal Credit: welfare that works which set out proposals for reforming the welfare system for people of working age. The Welfare Reform Act received Royal Assent on 8 March 2012 and aims to simplify the benefits system. A range of working-age benefits, including housing benefit, will be brought together into a single streamlined payment of universal credit (UC) administered by DWP. The first applications for UC will be made in October DWP sent a letter to each local authority Chief Executive in March 2012 entitled Planning for Welfare Reform from April 2013 which sets out key elements of the welfare reform. These include councils: providing face to face support for those customers who will need help to access the on-line universal credit system applying, in appropriate cases, a household benefit cap from April 2013 applying a social sector size criteria where there will be a reduction in the applicable maximum rent when a property is deemed to be under occupied overseeing an increased discretionary housing payment budget in light of the planned changes. 12. This is the biggest change to the welfare system for over 60 years and will have a significant impact on local authorities and the services they provide. Effective planning is essential to meet the challenge of this large scale change. Factors that councils need to take into account include: the cessation of new claims for housing benefit from October 2013 followed by a phased transfer of all housing benefit claims to UC by 2017 the implementation of a locally based council tax support scheme from April 2013 the likely increased liaison and face to face contact with customers and stakeholders in light of the many changes welfare reform will bring the Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS) which will see local authority fraud staff operating under SFIS policies the payment for housing support under UC being paid to the customer and not directly to the landlord. 13. The council has been very proactive in its preparation for the changes arising from the welfare reform agenda. Since 2011, a series of briefings have been provided to members, staff, and key stakeholders to keep them apprised of the changes and the potential impact on the council. The Team Manager (Revenues) is also an active participant in a number of national working groups on welfare reform, and supports the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) on welfare reform issues. 25

8 14. In May 2012, the council established a Welfare Reform Working Group with a remit to assess and monitor the impact of welfare reform, consider the implications for the council and its key partners, and ensure a cohesive approach to managing the changes. This group, which meets monthly, is led by the Revenues and Payments Manager and includes staff from a range of council services including Social Work, Education, Customer Services, and key representatives from external stakeholders including the council's two main housing associations, Ochil View and Paragon Housing. 15. At the time of our on-site visit, a detailed welfare reform action plan had been developed which sets out the actions required to help the council mitigate the impact of the welfare reform changes. However, although comprehensive, the action plan contained no information on progress made, or dates for completion, in respect of any of the actions. 16. In order to keep customers updated, the council had recently updated its website to provide more detailed information on welfare reform, and had procured an update to its benefits IT system to enable the system to be interrogated to identify customers affected by the changes. The council told us that these customers would be contacted in due course to provide them with further advice and guidance. 17. In April 2013, the DWP's accommodation size criteria for the social sector will come into force. This change limits the amount of benefit paid to working age customers who live in a property that is deemed to be under-occupied, for example the amount of benefit payable to a couple in a two bedroom household would be reduced by 14%. 18. In order to minimise the financial impact of this change, the council advised that its main housing associations had changed their allocations policy to ensure customers would be housed in properties that would not be considered under-occupied. However, we were also told that the council's housing service had not taken similar action and that this could lead to a potential benefit shortfall of approximately 500,000 in April 2013 as a result of council properties being under-occupied. Risks to continuous improvement 1 Although the council's welfare reform action plan is comprehensive, it does not contain completion dates for any of the actions, or information on progress made to date. 2 The council's housing service continues to allocate properties to customers that might be considered to be under-occupied when the DWP's accommodation size criteria are implemented in April This could potentially result in a benefit shortfall of approximately 500,

9 Business Planning 19. An effective business plan provides an opportunity for the council to set out the aims and objectives for each service and should contain key deliverables against which performance can be measured, monitored and reported. 20. The benefits service is an integral part of the Revenues and Payments service and the Benefits Team Business Plan 2012/13 sets out the service's mission statement 'to administer HB/CTB speedily and accurately while minimising errors and providing a proactive customer service". In order to achieve this, the business plan details eight necessary outcomes. These include: ensuring that staff are well trained and motivated, provided with opportunities to develop personally and professionally, and that a culture of continuous improvement and mutual support is created ensuring that policies and procedures are clearly defined, communicated and delivered maximising income for the council, and individuals minimising debt owed to the council, and the value of debt written off. 21. There are clear links between the Benefits Team Business Plan 2012/13 and the council's other key strategic documents. The council's 'golden thread' approach ensures that actions contained in the Benefits Team Business Plan 2012/13 are referenced to other linked service plans in order to meet the overall corporate priorities. For example, a key corporate priority is to ensure that vulnerable people and families are supported. 22. The Benefits Team Business Plan 2012/13 also contains four key service performance measures for the benefits service. These are: average calendar days to process new claims average calendar days to process changes of circumstances percentage value of overpayments caused by local authority error percentage value of benefits overpayments recovered. 23. At the time of the on-site visit, the council told us that it had a accrued a backlog of approximately 2,000 items of mail as a result of issues arising from the introduction of phase 2 of the DWP's Automated Transfers to Local Authority Systems (ATLAS) project. 24. We recognise the council has been very proactive in trying to address this backlog by recruiting new staff and providing a significant overtime budget to allow benefits staff to work evenings and weekends. However, progress has been slow. 25. We were told that the work outstanding at the time of the on-site visit could be cleared with approximately six weekends of overtime working. However, although the council told us that staff are committed to working overtime, due to the frequent unavailability of the DWP's Customer Information System (CIS) at weekends, only three weekends of overtime working had been possible in the previous three months. 27

10 26. Audit Scotland identified two risks to continuous improvement during the previous risk assessment in that there were no clear links between the HB/CTB Service Delivery Plan 2007/09 and the Corporate Plan 2008/11, and that the council's key benefits plans and policies had not been updated to reflect current working practices. 27. We consider that both of these risks have been addressed. Risks to continuous improvement 3 The Benefits Team Business Plan 2012/13 does not contain key performance indicators for all aspects of the service. For example, there are no performance indicators in respect of: the recovery of all benefits debt accuracy appeals and reconsiderations. 4 There has been no internal audit review carried out on the benefits service since Performance reporting 28. The regular reporting of performance to senior management and members is an essential component of service delivery and provides senior managers and members an opportunity to: challenge an under-performing service recognise and give credit to the service when performance meets or exceeds expectations gain assurance that a service is operating effectively, efficiently and economically. 29. The Revenues Service has a comprehensive performance management framework in place and regularly reports performance to staff and senior management. Daily and weekly workload reports are available to managers, and staff are apprised of service performance at monthly team meetings. 30. Performance is formally reported monthly to the Head of Support Services and the Senior Management Team (SMT), and quarterly to the Corporate Management Team (CMT) using the balanced scorecard approach. In addition, the council has recently purchased an online performance management IT system which is accessible by senior management and members. 31. However, although the balanced scorecard is comprehensive, of the 26 key indicators, only five relate to the work of the benefits service. These are: average days to process new claims (monthly) 28

11 average days to process changes of circumstances (monthly) in-year collection of benefits overpayments (quarterly) value of benefits overpayments outstanding (quarterly) number of sanctions (monthly). 32. In September 2012, a new service based committee structure was introduced with the benefits service reporting to the Resources and Audit committee. The council told us that it recognises the need to report all aspects of benefits service performance. It plans to review its current reporting arrangements with a view to developing an improved suite of benefits service performance indicators that can be incorporated into the new performance management system, by 31 December Audit Scotland identified a risk to continuous improvement during the previous risk assessment in that the performance of the benefits service reported to members was limited to speed of processing new claims and changes of circumstances. This risk remains outstanding. Risk to continuous improvement 5 The council has not set targets, and is not regularly reporting performance information to senior management and/or members, in respect of all aspects of the work of the benefits service. This includes performance in respect of: customer service the accuracy of payments interventions activity appeals and reconsiderations overpayments recovery counter-fraud. Meeting the needs of the user and the community 34. Encouraging benefit take-up, providing customers with easy access to skilled and knowledgeable staff, taking account of the needs of the local community, and managing customers expectations when things go wrong are essential components of an effective and efficient benefits service. 35. Since our previous risk assessment in 2008, the benefits service has been relocated and is due to be relocated again in 2013/14. Currently, customers can access the service from 29

12 Lime Tree House in Alloa, or at any of the seven community access points (CAPs) throughout the Clackmannanshire area. These include: Alva Clackmannan Dollar Menstrie Sauchie. 36. Staff in the CAPs have been trained in the requirements of the verification framework and are able to receive applications for HB/CTB and advise customers if further information is required. Once all of the information has been received and verified, completed claims are sent to the benefits service for processing. A home visiting service is also available for customers who are unable to attend any of the council's offices. 37. Since our previous visit, the council website has been updated and improved with access to detailed benefits information directly available from the homepage. This includes information in respect of: how to make a claim what supporting evidence is required examples of the type of changes of circumstances that should be notified the local housing allowance including information on current rates. 38. The council told us that it has excellent working relationships with its key stakeholders and has regular meetings with Ochil View and Paragon Housing, its two main registered social landlords. It also has quarterly meetings with the Jobcentre Plus, and regularly attends and provides input to the housing-led quarterly private landlord forums. 39. It is acknowledged that the Revenues Service has carried out consultation with benefits customers as part of its customer exit surveys, and an online survey. However, these have not been benefits-specific and we consider that the feedback requested has not been to a level that would provide the council with meaningful information on the quality of the benefits service being delivered. 40. During our previous visit, we identified seven risks to continuous improvement. We consider that five of these risks have been fully addressed and that the remaining two are outstanding as follows: there is no facility to download a HB/CTB application form, or to complete an electronic claim form online customer service targets are not benefits-specific, and performance is not reported or publicised externally. 30

13 Risks to continuous improvement 6 The benefits service has not carried out a benefits-specific customer survey since 2009, or landlord surveys, to provide information on the quality of the service delivered and help identify areas for service improvements. 7 There is no facility on the council website to complete an online application for HB/CTB or to download an application form for offline completion. Delivering outcomes 41. Effective operational processes and IT systems, along with skilled staff, help benefit services deliver sound performance and continuous improvement. Speed of processing 42. When customers claim benefits, it is a time of financial uncertainty for them and, as such, it is essential that the service has sufficient fully trained and effective benefit processors in place that can make informed decisions on complex benefit claims and pay benefits promptly. 43. In 2009/10, the council processed new claims and changes of circumstances in an average of 34 days and 10 days respectively. In 2010/11 the council delivered a significantly improved performance by processing new claims in an average of 27 days and changes of circumstances in an average of 8 days. 44. In 2011/12, performance improved again for new claims which were processed in an average of 26 days, while the time taken to process changes of circumstance was maintained. 45. It is commendable during a period of economic downturn, increased caseload, and the disruption to the service from being re-located since our previous visit that the benefits service had delivered improvements in its claims processing times. Based on the most recent DWP published performance data at 31 March 2012, the level of performance for 2011/12 placed the council 22nd out of the 32 Scottish councils for processing new claims and 9th for changes of circumstances. 46. However, performance has not been maintained in 2012/13 and, at 30 September 2012, the average time to process new claims and changes of circumstances had increased considerably to an average of 34 days and 11 days respectively. 47. Exhibit 1 illustrates the council s current and historic performance 31

14 Source: DWP and Clackmannanshire Council 48. The council told us that the introduction of phase 2 of the DWP's ATLAS project in March 2012 had a significant impact on speed of processing performance and that this had been as a result of: a significant increase in workload as changes were being notified regardless of whether it affected HB/CTB a 30% duplication of paperwork and ATLAS electronic data the poor quality of the electronic data provided by the DWP a failure by the council's software suppliers to provide the automation that had been expected. 49. For example, between 1 April 2011 and 15 September 2011 the council processed 18,266 work items. However during the same period in 2012, a total of 25,800 work items were processed, which represents an increase of 41%. As a consequence, the council told us that it had accrued a backlog of approximately 2,000 items of mail as at September Although performance has declined, the council has been very proactive. In order to reduce the mail outstanding and deal with the significant increase in the number of work items, the Team Manager (Revenues) has approval to recruit additional staff, a significant overtime budget, and authority to utilise agency staff where appropriate. Risk to continuous improvement 8 The unavailability of the DWP's CIS system is having a detrimental effect on the benefits service's ability to clear the current backlog of work, and consequently the council's claims processing performance is in decline. 32

15 Accuracy 51. The accurate and secure administration of HB/CTB should be a key priority for every council, and to support this it should have a robust quality assurance framework in place. 52. The Benefits Controller is responsible for carrying out management checks on the work of the benefits service. This involves a daily 5% post payment check of claims processed which are selected automatically by the document imaging system. A management check is carried out on the last system process and, where errors are found, the claim is referred back to the processor to correct the error before a final check is carried out by the Benefits Controller to ensure that the appropriate corrective action has been taken. 53. In addition to the daily management checks, a check is carried out on all cases that have been outstanding for more than 50 days and, where appropriate, further action is taken to progress these cases. 54. Since 2009/10, the council has delivered continuous improvement in its non-financial accuracy rate from 90% in 2009/10 to 96% in 2011/12. However, the council has not formally recorded its financial accuracy rate since 2009/10, when it was last reported at 98%. 55. During our previous visit, we identified one risk in this area in that the council's accuracy performance was below the DWP's targets in 2006/07 and 2007/08. As the DWP no longer requires councils to report against this target, we consider that this risk has been fully addressed. Risks to continuous improvement 9 Management checks are limited to the last system process and do not cover all aspects of the benefits service's activities. For example, there are no specific checks on overpayments, high value payments, interventions activity, or appeals and requests for reconsideration. 10 Although the council records the outcomes of errors found, the information recorded is not to a level that would enable meaningful analysis to be carried out which could help to identify areas for learning and development. 11 There are no targets for financial or non-financial accuracy, and the council has not formally reported its financial accuracy performance to senior management and/or members since 2009/ Cases are automatically selected for a management check by parameters within the document imaging system and therefore there is a significant risk that a fraudulent claim could be created on the benefits IT system that would not be subject to a management check. 33

16 Interventions 56. To minimise error in the caseload, councils must encourage customers to report changes of circumstances on time and have a robust intervention programme to identify changes and take appropriate corrective action. 57. At the time of our last visit, Audit Scotland identified two risks to continuous improvement in that the council's interventions programme was limited to postal interventions due to the long-term absence of the visiting officer, and that it had not considered the use of telephone interventions as another means of identifying un-reported changes of circumstances. 58. We consider both of these risks to have been fully addressed as, subsequent to our report, the visiting officer returned to work and the council recommenced its visiting interventions programme. It also considered extending its interventions activity to telephone interventions; however, a decision was taken not to implement this due to budget pressures, and the introduction of ATLAS, which provided the council with an alternative method of identifying changes of circumstances. 59. Since January 2012, the council has had a dedicated officer responsible for managing its interventions programme and uses postal interventions as its primary means of establishing if a customer's circumstances have changed. Local risk criteria have been developed and a daily system report is produced which details claims which are considered to have a high risk of an unreported change of circumstances. These include claims: where earned income has not changed in the last 12 months where the customer has earned income and there are non-dependants living in the household where the customer is in receipt of a private pension which has not changed in the last 12 months. 60. Outcomes from intervention activity are recorded on the benefits IT system. However, due to the limitations of the system, only basic outcome data is recorded, for example, the number of cases resulting in an increase or decrease in the amount of benefit. Risk to continuous improvement 13 The council needs to develop a more detailed way of recording and analysing interventions outcomes to enable it to make better use of the data to help refine local risk criteria, and identify trends, patterns, and areas for learning and development. 34

17 Overpayments 61. To protect public funds, councils should take appropriate steps to ensure that overpayments are minimised and that when they do occur they are correctly classified and rigorously recovered. 62. The HB/CTB Overpayment Recovery Policy sets out the council's approach to properly administer benefits overpayments and excess council tax benefit, and details the types of overpayments and the recovery options available to staff. It also states that the effective and efficient administration and recovery of benefits overpayments will help the council by: reducing losses to the public purse maximising revenue for the council detecting fraud and error in the benefits system delivering a quality benefits service to its customers. 63. The benefits service has a dedicated overpayments recovery officer and makes good use of all available options to recover benefit overpayments. These include: recovery by deductions from on-going benefit issuing an invoice when the customer is no longer in receipt of benefit working with the DWP's Debt Management Unit to recover overpayments from on-going DWP benefits where appropriate using the DWP's CIS system to trace customers who are no longer claiming benefit in the local authority area working in partnership with the its debt recovery agents to pursue debt that has not been recovered by internal methods using other commercial products. 64. Exhibit 3 illustrates the council s current and historic performance Exhibit 2: Overpayment levels and recovery performance Performance measure Total overpayments HB debt raised inyear HB debt recovered in-year % recovered of total HB debt 2009/ / /12 1,755,277 1,794,071 1,835, , , , , , ,950 33% 23% 29% 35

18 Exhibit 2: Overpayment levels and recovery performance % recovered of inyear debt 48% 49% 73% Source: Clackmannanshire Council 65. It is commendable that the council has delivered an excellent performance and continuous improvement in the value of in-year debt recovery from 48% in 2009/10 to 73% in 2011/12. However, while it is acknowledged that the council has performed well when pursuing and recovering current debt, it has not met its target to recover 30% of all outstanding debt since 2009/ During our previous visit, we identified seven risks in this area and consider that five have been fully addressed as the council: now uses recovery by ongoing deductions in respect of council tenants has a dedicated overpayments recovery officer reports overpayments recovery performance to senior management and members provides customers with overpayment information on the council website has updated its overpayments recovery policy. 67. The other two risks, i.e. fraud overpayments are not prioritised for recovery, and there is no service level agreement between the council and its debt recovery partners, remain outstanding. Risks to continuous improvement 14 At the time of our on-site visit, the overpayments data provided to Audit Scotland as part of the council's self assessment submission was inaccurate. Based on our analysis, there is approximately 184,000 of debt recovered but unaccounted for in the council's reported data. 15 The council told us that fraud overpayments and administrative penalties are not easily identifiable within the sundry debtor system, and therefore they are not prioritised for recovery to act as a deterrent to potential fraudsters. 16 The council has not achieved its target to recover 30% of all benefits debt outstanding since 2010/11. This may in part be attributable to: a six week delay before a customer is issued with an invoice approximately 400,000 of overpayments relating to former council tenants that are not being actively pursued a very low recovery rate for council tenant debt of 10% in 2012/13. 36

19 Appeals and Reconsiderations 68. Customers who disagree with the council s decision on the manner in which their benefit application is processed have a right to request the claim to be reconsidered, and to appeal against the decision. 69. During our previous visit, we identified two risks to continuous improvement in that there were no targets for dealing with appeals and requests for reconsideration and therefore performance was not being reported to senior management or members. In addition, there was no analysis of outcomes to help identify trends, patterns and opportunities for learning and development. 70. We consider that both of these risks remain outstanding. 71. The council told us that appeals and requests for reconsideration are dealt with in the same manner as all incoming mail. Requests for reconsideration are dealt with by benefits processors, while appeals are directed to an appeals folder on the document imaging system and dealt with by the Benefits Controller or the Team Manager (Revenues). 72. As this is an area of work that is not formally recorded, there is no performance information against which the council could measure its effectiveness in dealing with appeals and requests for reconsideration. Risk to continuous improvement 17 The council is not formally recording the number of requests for reconsideration and appeals received, and has not set targets for this work. Consequently, performance is not being reported to senior management and/or members, and the council is unable to determine how effective it is in this area. Counter-fraud 73. The prevention, detection and investigation of fraudulent claims are important aspects of a secure and effective benefits service. Counter-fraud activities help to protect public funds by ensuring that fraudulent claims are identified and sanctions are applied where appropriate. 74. The Audit and Fraud Business plan 2012/13 sets out the mission for the Audit and Fraud Team 'to provide an excellent proactive professional corporate audit and fraud service giving independent assurance on the governance and internal control arrangements and providing support and added value to customers'. 75. However, at the time of our on-site visit the business plan was incomplete and in draft format. For example, there was no information in respect of the aims and objectives of the fraud team, how service performance would be managed, or what the fraud team's key service performance measures are for the year. 37

20 76. Operationally, the fraud team makes good use of two dedicated counter-fraud IT systems to manage the referral process and record and monitor the progression of investigations. Initially, each referral is risk scored and, when a referral meets or exceeds the minimum acceptable risk score, it is accepted for investigation and logged onto the case management system. 77. The case management system is comprehensive and has a facility to record all actions taken as part of the investigation process, providing a clear and easily accessible audit trail. 78. We were told that, where a linked benefit is in payment, the fraud team regularly undertakes joint working with its DWP FIS counterparts and that there is an excellent working relationship between the two organisations. Where a sanction has been administered there is a clear decision making process in place and, to provide independent assurance that guidelines and procedures are being followed, sanction decisions are referred to the Head of Legal Services on a quarterly basis. 79. However, although this is considered good practice, there are significant delays in the time taken by the Head of Legal Services to respond. At the time of our on-site visit in October 2012, we were advised of six sanction decisions that had been referred to the Head of Legal Services in August 2012 that had not been returned approximately six weeks later. 80. At the time of our previous visit in 2008, a programme of fraud awareness had been delivered to benefits staff and staff in other council departments using an online fraud awareness product. However, no further fraud awareness training had been carried out since then. 81. The council has seen a decline in the number of sanctions administered from 104 in 2009/10 to 51 in 2011/12, which represents a decrease of 51%. Exhibit 5 illustrates the council s current and historic performance. Exhibit 4: Benefit fraud sanctions performance Sanction type 2009/ / /12 Administrative Cautions Administrative Penalties Referred for prosecution Total Source: Clackmannanshire Council 82. During our previous risk assessment, we identified eight risks to continuous improvement and consider that six have been fully addressed. The remaining two risks are as follows: the mid-investigation management checks are not formally recorded or analysed to identify opportunities for learning and improvement 38

21 the council website contains limited information on the work of the counter-fraud team and no online fraud referral facility. Sanction outcomes are not publicised and counterfraud information on the website is out of date. Risks to continuous improvement 18 The council website only contains limited information on the work of the fraud team, and there is no facility to complete an online fraud referral. Sanction outcomes are not publicised and counter-fraud information is out of date. For example, the information on the fraud referral page was last updated in There are only limited ad-hoc management checks on the work of the fraud team, and results are not analysed to help identify areas for learning and development. 20 There are significant delays in the time taken for the Head of Legal Services to review and comment on sanction decision cases. 21 There has been no formal fraud awareness training provided to staff since 2009/ The fraud team does not currently have the capacity to deal with the 200 claims which are expected to require investigation as a result of the council tax single person discount review due to be carried out. In addition, the fraud team has seen a decline in the number of sanctions administered from 104 in 2009/10 to 51 in 2011/12, which was well below the annual target of 75 sanctions. 39

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