The Benefits Manager explained that the Revenues and Benefits Partnership was working cohesively and there was no practical division between workers for Sevenoaks District and Dartford Borough Councils.

Activity for the Benefits Team had increased by a third between April 2011 and January 2012 because of the economic conditions and new notification procedures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), who expected a prompt reaction. The Team’s caseload was now at 15,000 and they were using some agency staff to provide temporary cover as recruitment was becoming particularly difficult. Case turnaround was not as quick as she wanted. These pressures affected all Councils but she believed the partnership had helped to provide strength through numbers.

The Revenues Manager added that the Council Tax collection in Sevenoaks was the highest in the county. There had also been some significant increases in Business Rate collection, which augured well once the partial Business Rate retention changes had been introduced. She was pleased that payment of tax by Direct Debit had risen greatly in Sevenoaks.

The Chairman congratulated the Revenues and Benefits Team on their silver award at the Institute of Revenues Ratings and Valuation for Excellence in Partnership Working.

Members were updated on the proposals for the Universal Credit. The DWP no longer presumed that Local Authorities had no role to play. The Benefits Manager had recently met the DWP Director and was encouraging the DWP  to find a role for Local Authorities in supporting applicants. It was still expected that the benefit would be processed by the DWP.

All Officers within the Partnership were looking for additional savings and some savings were already built into the budget. The Partnership Agreement set out the trigger for increasing costs and how efficiencies would be distributed between the Councils. The legislative changes meant it was unlikely further authorities would be added to the Partnership for the moment.

A Member enquired whether Officers fully appreciated the difficult position many benefit applicants were in. Officers felt that they did appreciate their position, despite the workload pressure they faced, as Officers were in daily contact with the public. A Member, who was the Chairman of the Services Select Committee Working Group on the Universal Credit, supported the Officers’ comments and stated that local authorities played a considerable role in changing applicants’ behaviour.

Action:            The Principal Accountant to assist Cllr. McGarvey to produce a table of comparative Council Tax rises for the parish councils covered by the area of Dartford Borough Council.

The Chairman enquired whether the impact of the reforms to Council Tax, including the cut to the revenue support grant and the localisation of support for Council Tax, was yet known. Officers were disappointed that information was only being released slowly.

For the partial retention of Business Rates it was presumed that a baseline year would be set but it was not known what year that might be.

Advice on who would be considered as a protected group under the localisation of Council Tax support may be released too late for the Council to make amendments in time for the first administrative year and therefore the Council may need to accept that the proposed cut of 10% to the grant would result in a loss to the Council. It was acknowledged that this could also have a significant impact on other precepting authorities, particularly KCC. It may be too complex for Sevenoaks District and Dartford Borough Council to arrive at a common scheme as there were considerable demographic differences between the areas.

Action:            The Principal Accountant to give a presentation to the Finance Advisory Group in June on the current Council Tax collection fund and taxbase setting processes, including details for the parish councils in the wards of the Members of the Finance Advisory Group.

Special software would be needed for the Revenues Team to administer the new scheme but until the regulations were put in place the software could not be written. The regulations were not expected until Summer or Autumn 2012. It was possible that, due to time constraints, the Partnership may need to use software common to many Councils, rather than tailored software.