PENDLE Council's housing and council tax benefits service has been given a one star rating in Best Value Report which judged it a fair service.

The Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) carried out an inspection of the administration last year under the government's Best Value scheme, which places a duty on all councils to deliver the most economic, efficient and effective services possible.

In the report published today inspectors judged the council to be providing a fair benefits service, scored as one star under the three-star Best Value rating system.

They said that improvement of the service was probable, mainly due to the strong commitment of elected members, management and staff to improve benefit administration.

Strengths of the service included the performance on processing claims that are being renewed, good consultation and liaison with all interested parties, investment in new IT systems and extra staff resources.

There were also areas highlighted as needing improving, such as performance measurement and the number of management checks, the recording of overpayments and weaknesses in fraud investigations.

In 2000/2001 the council paid out £18.5million in benefits, which is 45 per cent of its gross expenditure.

Recommendations made by the inspectorate included increasing the level of professional training for fraud staff, developing counter fraud activity so that the council can deliver its prosecution policy, strengthening the overpayment recovery process and using management information to make improvements in prioritising work and allocating resources.

Councillor Azhar Ali, leader of Pendle Council, said: "We welcome the government Best Value report of the Council's housing benefit and council tax benefit service. We feel that the award of a fair and improving service accreditation at July 2001 was an accurate assessment of the service at that time. We have introduced measures that the inspectors have recommended and we are pleased how the service has progressed over the last six months.

"The key performance indicator for claim processing is now below 30 days and would warrant a good or very good rating.

"We are pleased that the inspectors from the BFI have praised the commitment of elected members, management and staff in seeing the service improve. Likewise, the comments regarding extra investment in staff and IT systems and improved reception facilities are equally appreciated.

"We accepted that the fraud prevention needed improving and recently the council have signed up to the Government's main anti-fraud strategy, the Verification Framework. This procedure is due to be implemented over the next four months and has attracted significant government money."