Hyndburn Council took an average of 35 days to process new claims in housing benefits between January and March 2024.

Recent statistics published by the Department for Work and Pensions listed the council as taking almost double the time to pay than the national average.

In England and Wales, Hyndburn was ranked 11th slowest for processing new housing benefits claims and was 16 days above the national average of 19.

The council spent a total of 6,409 days processing the 181 benefit claims and the average time spent was significantly higher than all other councils in East Lancashire.

Councillor Vanessa Alexander, Portfolio Holder for Resources and Council Operations said: “Earlier this year, our housing benefit processing times were 35 days.

“However, we have since undertaken a comprehensive review of our practices and implemented significant improvements.”

It also took the council 11 more days to process new claims than between October and November last year, but Alexander claims that they have since successfully reduced their processing time to 21 days.

Calculations made by the Department for Work and Pensions included weekends but not days where additional processing is required such as a customer’s failure to provide additional information and delays between offices.

She added: “We would like to highlight that we can only process claims once all supporting evidence is received. Lack of supporting evidence is one of the main causes to delays in the claims process. 

 “We are actively exploring additional ways to assist customers directly and local organisations who assist residents in submitting claims more efficiently.”

Impacts of a slow housing benefit can lead to rent arrears, debt accumulation, increased pressure on social services and even homelessness.

Ribble Valley was the second quickest nationally in paying out their housing benefits taking on average just five days to pay the 51 claimants.

Nationally it took on average 19 days for local authorities to pay the 20,581 claimants.

Of the 357 local authorities just over 40 of them managed to do this in under 11 days, with all five other East Lancashire Councils falling under this mark.

Blackburn with Darwen had to process the most claims (273) but averaged 10 days in providing the necessary support.

Claims are decided once the customer has been given an opportunity to provide all the information requested on the form and any additional information the local authority may require.