A council has appealed to the government to take responsibility for housing benefit administration chaos, after it revealed its rent arrears had risen to £15m.
Sheffield council said its rent arrears have increased from £13.5m to £15m in the past three months.

However, it said it would not be fining the private group it contracts to administer housing benefit for failing to meet targets for the reduction of backlogs.

Instead contractor CSL has agreed to reduce its contract fee with the council.

The company fell short of its goal to bring down backlogged claims to 5,000 in August from a May peak of 19,000 - currently the backlog stands at 12,341.

Councillor Andrew Sangar said the council was disappointed that the targets had not been achieved, but satisfied that continuous improvement had been made over the last three months.

Sheffield's predicament has been compounded by the IT system introduced to implement the new verification framework last year, in addition to unresponsive customer service for those in the backlog, he said.

Peter MacLoughlin, cabinet member for Sheffield's housing and direct services, said that although CSL had been fined twice in the past, it was unjust to lay blame for the arrears crisis wholly at its door.

MacLoughlin pointed to additional complexities in the benefit system, created by central government's new verification scheme.

He said: "It is now up to the government and the Benefits Agency to take the responsibility which the social security select committee report states is their responsibility, to sort this mess out nationally".

The council is in the process of writing a brief for a study exploring the impact of the verification framework, and government programmes such as the New Deal upon benefit take-up.

One Sheffield housing association, which asked to remain anonymous, said it was awaiting the processing of claims from as far back as February.

While CSL would be exhorted to extend resources in areas of concern Coun MacLouglin