Issue - meetings

Housing Benefit Grant Claim

Meeting: 15/01/2018 - Audit, Governance and Standards Committee (Item 72)

72 Housing Benefit Grant Claim pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Mrs Liz Norris, Business Support Manager, introduced her report summarising the outcome of the work undertaken by Grant Thornton, the External Auditor, to certify the Housing Benefit Grant Claim submitted by the Council for the financial year 2016/17.  It was noted that:

 

·  The claim related to expenditure of £46.7m.

 

·  The External Auditor had undertaken a sample check of 60 Housing Benefit claims across the main areas of expenditure and identified 3 errors.  As a result of the errors identified, a further sample of 120 cases was checked, and 3 more errors were identified.  The total value of the errors identified was £611.  As a result of the errors identified, the claim was amended and qualified.  With the value of the errors extrapolated across the subsidy claim, a total adjustment of £25,004 was made with the net effect being an increase of £17,280 in the subsidy paid to the Council.

 

·  It was not unusual for Housing Benefit Grant Claims to be qualified and the Council had been the exception in not being qualified in previous years.  The level of adjustment as a result of the audit represented 0.05% of the total grant claim.

 

·  Procedures and training had been put in place to eradicate the types of errors found, supported by robust quality assurance measures.  An increased level of checking would be undertaken in advance of submission of the 2017/18 grant claim.  The service was actively looking at automation to avoid transposition of figures.

 

In response to questions, the Officers/representative of the External Auditor explained that:

 

·  In terms of the errors found and checking in advance of submitting the 2017/18 grant claim, a 100% check would be undertaken in respect of one of the areas where errors had been identified.  With regard to the other areas, the quality assurance product would be used to target the particular elements that had caused problems.

 

·  Extrapolation was where a % error rate found when testing a sample of claims for that error was applied to the total amount which might be affected by the error to estimate the potential value.

 

·  Staff worked in accordance with the Housing Benefit Regulations, and errors identified were errors made by staff when carrying out assessments.

 

Members were mindful that the extrapolated financial impact of the errors on the Council’s claim were relatively insignificant to the total subsidy receivable.

 

RESOLVED:  That the findings of the Housing Benefit Grant Claim audit undertaken by Grant Thornton and the planned action by the Revenues and Benefits Service be noted.