BOSSES at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council have claimed they are back on track with benefits claims after shaking up their partnership with private firm Capita.

In January, people claiming housing benefits said they were being threatened with eviction because their claims for benefits were not being processed quickly enough.

Now the company has said its oldest claim dated back to April 8.

Coun David Foster, deputy leader of the Lib Dems in the borough, said: "I know of people who have had to take out loans from loan sharks just to pay their rent so the legacy of this will be around for a long time to come.

"We need to make sure it does not happen again."

Performance reports at the beginning of the year showed the average length for a claim was 74 days, when the target should be nearer 14 days.

The problems arose when Capita, the firm which signed a 15-year, £205million deal with the council, took over benefit handling.

While it was allowed to verify and sort out the claim, the final authorisation still had to come from the council - effectively adding an extra stage to the claims process. The backlog had left many residents without money to pay rents and private landlords said the situation could force them to take out loans just to keep going.

But Terry Boynes, director of Capita's Blackburn Business Centre, said things had improved a lot.

He said: "The oldest claim we have now dates back to April 8, which is a massive improvement on what we had before.

"This has been achieved by using staff from our benefits centre at Glenfield Park, who are employed to carry out overspill work sent out by local authorities.

"We have also worked with the council to effectively pool our staff. In the past, we would verify claims, then send them over to the council for them to approve them. This created a backlog because the council would have to wait for us to send the claims over, then they would have to wait before sending the next ones through while they cleared the first lot.

"Now, we work together and put staff wherever they are needed to make sure there is a fast turnaround time."