Our Service Standards
The Benefit service
East Hampshire District Council administers the council tax and housing benefit scheme for approximately 5,240 households in the district. We pay £18,000,000 in benefit payments each year on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions.
What are our objectives?
- To provide financial support to eligible people in the district to help them to either obtain or retain suitable accommodation.
In order to do this we need to;
- Provide a Benefits service which is accessible, pays the right level of Benefit, on time, treats customers with sensitivity and respect and is secure against error and fraud.
What outcomes are we trying to achieve?
- Maxmise awareness of Benefits availability
- Providing a timely but secure system of Benefit administration
How will we achieve this?
- Experienced, well trained staff with sound technical knowledge and good customer care skills
- An ongoing programme of service development planning to identify improvements and developments on an annual basis
- Staff and Managers who are able to manage and react positively to change
- Right level of staff resources
- Modern, flexible IT systems that are integrated and support access to data via a variety of channels
- Service must be accessible and responsive
- Consistency of approach
- Continued investment in training
- Further investments in IT systems, equipment and software and IT systems support
- Review of policies and procedures and provide better documentation to improve consistency of service delivery
How do we know when/if we have achieved a good service?
By:
- Monitoring our performance against the key National Performance Indicators
- Comparing our performance with other authorities
- Consulting our customers on how they feel we are performing
- Analysing our complaints and suggestions for service improvements from our customers and stakeholders
How to contact us