What the Department for Work and
Pensions says:

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Andrew Smith has published a report by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) on the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and counter-fraud activity by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council.
This report found that, while having some significant challenges ahead, the council is well placed to develop its benefits administration and counter-fraud performance into that of a high achieving authority.
BFI was impressed by the clear focus shown by the benefit service management team, and the council was addressing a range of significant problems.
The report found serious weaknesses in the council's benefit claim forms, and significant weaknesses in the way that the council verified evidence to support benefit claims. Both these issues require urgent attention by the council. The council's performance in the time taken to process benefit claims was also found to be disappointing. Publicity for benefits in general was not adequate, and the council had only undertaken one very limited benefit take-up campaign.
The council is making some progress in the recovery of benefit overpayments but there were some problems in overpayment calculation and classification. The report found delays in the overpayments process, poor levels of supervisory checks and flawed management information. A high number of old Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit overpayments had not been recovered.
The report notes the good performance of the counter-fraud Benefit Investigation team, which has undertaken a large number of successful benefit fraud prosecutions, as well as issuing cautions and offering administrative penalties. A thorough case review process had helped to ensure that the quality of fraud investigations remained high. The council had also put in place a fraud hotline.
The council's benefit service management team has taken full ownership of the difficulties that face the council's benefit service, and has a clear vision of the service it wants to provide.
In 2000/01, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council administered approximately £86.8 million in housing benefits. This is approximately 32% of its gross revenue expenditure.
BFI is an independent unit within the Department for Work and Pensions that reports directly to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the standard of benefit administration and counter-fraud activity.
Malcolm Wicks, Work and Pensions Minister announced the publication of the report in a written ministerial statement.

Department for Work and Pensions Web site

Recent comparisons across London boroughs show that Hammersmith & Fulham Council is consistently one of the best performers in London with a total of 64 fraud sanctions applied between April - October 2002 including 15 successful prosecutions.

Councillor Stephen Cowan, Deputy for Housing (or Elaine Elkington, Director of Housing) said : “The council has clearly demonstrated its commitment to preventing fraud. I am pleased to see that the report acknowledges the considerable strengths of the benefits team.

“The majority of the recommendations in the BFI report have already been implemented, including extra staff training in calculation and classification of overpayments. Revised arrangements for supervisory checks have been in place since June 2002 and the council continues to perform in the top quartile of London authorities on the percentage of housing benefit overpayments recovered.

“We have also identified additional funding to ensure that the remaining recommendations can be met in full.”

'Weaknesses' identified by the inspectors relate to the council not having adopted voluntary government guidelines on verifying claims. Like a number of other councils, Hammersmith & Fulham is awaiting a re-working of these guidelines, promised by the government for October, before adopting them so as to avoid unnecessary delays and confusion for claimants. Robust arrangements for the verification of claims are, nevertheless, in place.

Council's Web site