Archived press release

Date Published: 03/07/07

Aylesbury Vale District Council is continuing to improve its performance in the collection of council tax and the administration of benefits. The council’s revenues and benefits service – which includes council tax and business rate c...

Aylesbury Vale District Council is continuing to improve its performance in the collection of council tax and the administration of benefits.

The council’s revenues and benefits service – which includes council tax and business rate collection and the processing of housing and council tax benefit claims – has been working harder than ever this year to keep AVDC at the forefront of revenues and benefits performance in England.

The latest performance indicators for the benefits service show that AVDC is the best in the country when it comes to dealing with council tax and housing benefits. The council provides benefits to more than 8,200 households and pays out an average £30 million annually in housing and council tax benefits to those with low incomes.

A report issued by the Department for Work and Pensions reveals that the council hit the top quartile mark (or top 25 per cent) of local authorities nationally for each of the six performance measures which the Department regularly monitors.

AVDC features in the top 20 for all the measures and was the only authority in the country to achieve this level of performance in the last financial year (2006/7).

The Department for Work and Pensions expect councils to process new claims in 30 days. However, benefit claimants in Aylesbury Vale can expect to wait on average just 16 days for the council to process their claims.

The council takes an average of five days to process a ‘change of circumstances’ claim (this can affect the amount of benefit customers can receive). The government standard is for this to be completed within nine days.

Additionally, AVDC has a very high accuracy rating, makes the first rent allowance payment on time 100 per cent of the time and decides 99 per cent of claims within 14 days of receiving the correct information.

The government has also published details of each council’s collection rate for council tax and business rates for the tax year that ended in March.

AVDC was tasked with collecting about £77.76 million in council tax during 2006/7 and actually collected 98.8 per cent of that total during the year – an increase of 0.1 per cent compared with the previous year. The eventual collection rate is even higher as the council carries on chasing debts after the year-end.

The revenues and benefits team also collected an impressive 99.8 per cent of business rates (£38.8 million) in the last financial year, which makes AVDC the fifth best performing authority for this service in the country.

The authority is responsible for collecting council tax from some 68,700 domestic properties and 4,400 businesses and will continue to make every effort to collect unpaid council tax and business rates, including invoking legal proceedings and utilising bailiffs if necessary.

AVDC collects council tax on behalf of Buckinghamshire County Council, Thames Valley Police, Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue and town and parish councils. However, the district council only retains around 10 per cent of the total council tax bill.

Councillor Margaret Morgan-Owen, Cabinet Member for Resources, said: “The revenues and benefits service is of great importance to the district. On the revenues side it collects the cash that allows provision of the extensive range of public sector services provided across the Vale, whilst the benefits service helps many of the most needy in our community. Our goal is that the service to our customers meets the highest standards. It is not an easy service and the team deserves all our congratulations for their continuous improvement.”

If you are on a low income and want to find out more about housing and council tax benefits, visit the council’s website at www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk or call the benefits team on 01296 585618.