A COUNCILLOR has slammed a "targets obsessed" culture after welfare rights workers helped needy people claim £3.25million in lost benefits - but were told it still wasn't enough.

Officers from the county council's welfare rights team have been given a target of 6,750 new benefits awards by April 2009, as a result of their efforts in the last year Previously the target set was 4,825 - resulting in a 40 per cent rise for the busy service.

Now cabinet member for sustainable development and Burnley Central West county councillor Tony Martin has gone on the offensive, claiming that the five-strong welfare rights outfit had already helped to transform the lives of dozens of deserving claimants.

Currently county hall officials estimate that they are on target to achieve around 5,419 awards over the next 20 months, leaving them 20 per cent short of their target.

If the team achieves this rating, it will equate to an £11.6million benefits windfall for wrongly-assessed claimants, including hundreds of people living in Burnley, Pendle Rossendale, Ribble Valley and Hyndburn.

Coun Martin said: "Only in the performance indicator obssessed public sector can this scale of achievement be portrayed as a failure."

So far the welfare rights advisors, as of July 2007, have dealt with 1,509 awards with further cases being referred to them daily.

"We are not only making a significant difference to people's lives, in some cases we have transformed their quality of living," said Coun Martin.

The department has received testimonies for a number of cases they have helped out in recent times.

One claimant from Nelson said: "The end result was beyond our wildest dreams and the difference it has made to our quality of life makes words like thank you' so inadequate.

Another pensioner from Barnoldswick added: "I am 84-years-old and never knew I could get help like this."

And an OAP from Brierfield said: "This pension credit award will make all the difference in taking the worry out of paying my bills."

Coun Martin said the service could help out more people if district councils took part in a mailshot campaign, designed to highlight the work of the welfare rights service.

As neither Hyndburn nor Rossendale councils took part in the initiative, rates of council tax cases dealt with remain relatively low.

The target is drawn as part of Lancashire County Council's local area agreements system, a joint arrangement between the authority, the government, and the voluntary, community and faith sectors countywide.