What we have achieved in 2008/2009
Working with our partners at the Pension Service:
When assessing entitlement to Housing Benefit and or Council Tax Benefit the Benefit Team will carry out a check to see if the benefit customer should be claiming additional benefits such as:
- Pension Credit
- Carers Allowance
- Attendance Allowance
Where appropriate a referral is then made to the Pension Service who will then contact the customer.
Referral Activity for the period 01/04/08 to 31/12/08
|
Number of Referrals cleared |
Number of Pension credit claims made |
Number of Pension Credit Awards |
Number of Attendance Allowance (AA) & Disability Living Allowance(DLA) Claims made |
Number of Attendance Allowance Awards made |
Number of Other Benefit Claims made |
Number of Other Benefit Awards made |
Total number of claims made |
Total number of Awards made |
|
125 |
62 |
40 |
21 |
17 |
16 |
1 |
99 |
58 |
| Amount of benefit generated |
|
|
£1174 per week |
|
AA £915 per week
DLA £114 per week |
|
|
|
£2203 per week additional benefit |
The Pension Service
The Pension Service ran a data-matching exercise to identify those customers receiving Pension Credit but with no evidence of a live Housing Benefit (HB) and or Council Tax Benefit (CTB) claim. The Benefit Team reviewed the data received and detailed below is the outcome of the work undertaken:
Pension Service data matching exercise
| Number of data matches received |
Number of cases identified by the Benefit Team as having a possible entitlement to HB and or CTB |
Number of telephone contacts made |
Number of home visits made |
Number of new benefit claims made |
Amount of Council Tax Benefit generated (weekly) |
Amount of Housing Benefit generated (weekly) |
| 350 |
130 |
49 |
81 |
38 |
£635.93 |
£428.64 |
Council Tax Benefit Take-Up leaflet
As part of the annual billing process for 2008/09 the Benefit Team sent out their Council Tax Benefit Take-Up leaflet to all households in the East Hampshire district. The leaflet gave advice about how to claim Council Tax Benefit and provided examples of minimum income levels required in order to claim.
Warm Front
During January and February this year the Benefit Team worked in partnership with the Warm Front team and sent out 2432 letters on their behalf to benefit claimants within the district to make them aware of this government-funded scheme. The scheme provides grants for insulation and heating improvements for people who own their home or rent their home from a private landlord and who are in receipt of certain benefits.
Disabled Persons Relief
In May 2008 The Council Tax Team sent a covering letter and application form for Disabled Persons Relief with all bus token renewal forms.
As a result of this mail shot, successful claims increased from 374 to 435 an increase of 61 or 16%.
Small Business Relief
A new Small Business Relief advice leaflet was designed during 2008 to be sent to every new occupier of business premises with a qualifying rateable value of less than £15,000.
A direct mail shot to over 400 likely small businesses in December 2008 resulted in an increase from 885 successful claims to 1,089 and increase of 204 or 23%. The amount claimed increased from £643,205 to £728,827.
From February 2009 the Council Tax Team are attempting to contact the remaining businesses by telephone or personal visit to ascertain if they should be claiming the relief. We estimate this could increase take up by a further 100 claims.
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