IT must have been a real shock for 49-year-old blind man Robert Dysart to have his mail read to him and be told he was being summoned to court for non-payment of his council tax, especially as he's on benefit and exempt from the charge.

In his case, the upshot was that the summons was withdrawn and he got a full and frank apology from the council.

But is that good enough? For he is far from the only one to face unnecessary worry and bother because the processing of benefits in Blackburn with Darwen is in an absolute mess.

Yet, what's worse, is the system is still in such a state, long after people were promised that the horrendous backlog of dealing with claims and payments would be sorted.

Indeed, it has been like that virtually ever since the council farmed out the work two years ago to private-sector public services provider Capita.

Laughably, the switch was supposed to make the delivery of services cheaper and more efficient. Strict performance targets had been set, we were told.

Yet, within six months of Capita taking over the work, housing benefit claims had got three months behindhand -- when they should have been dealt with in a fortnight.

As a result, tenants who hadn't received their benefit were being threatened with eviction.

OK, no doubt there were teething troubles with the changeover, but nine months on from that the backlog was still 74 days. But "We are catching up," they said.

Really? A month later, a landlord reported waiting 95 days for outstanding rent because it took all that time for the tenant in question to have her benefit paid.

By then, the town hall had changed the numbers round on the 14-day target for processing claims. Instead, according to citizens' rights supremo Councillor Maureen Bateson, the aim was to get as close as possible to the 41 days that top-performing councils were set for processing claims. And that target date for that stage being met? "In the next financial year," Coun Bateson said. That meant 2002-03 -- which has long since come and gone.

So where are we at now? Seventy days -- that's the length of wait that poor old blind man Mr Dysart's claim got bogged down in along with heaven knows how many others

And in other words, the mess is really no better than it was 16 whole months ago.

It may be that since Capita signed the £205million, 15-year deal with Blackburn with Darwen Council to run town hall services, it has created hundreds of new jobs. But what of the anxiety and hassle created for hundreds of residents?

Shouldn't Capita's somewhat lovestruck partner, the council that was voted best in the land while this chaos continued, now issue a summons, one that puts the company on the carpet and tells it that the target date for no more excuses is today?