Commission wants more associationsto check tenants' benefit claims

The scheme was intended to speed up claim processing, but those who have had to make it work on the ground warned it eats up huge amounts of staff time.

Extending the housing benefit verification framework was one of a raft of recommendations in an Audit Comission report on streamlining benefits administration this week.

It said councils "should look for opportunities to work with voluntary sector advice agencies and housing associations to help claimants get their details 'right first time' and checked and ready for assessment more quickly".

One of its authors, commission senior manager Patrick Clackett, said it could mean expanding the fledgling verification framework, where associations check claims for the local council. Schemes are in operation across England.

"The jury's still out on the verification framework," he admitted. Certain safeguards would have to be in place and the idea would have to be costed and supported, he explained.

The National Housing Federation welcomed the proposal. Head of research Danny Friedman said the initial results from the pilots "seem to be positive", but added that the framework would have to operate on a voluntary basis.

New Islington and Hackney Housing Association has been verifying housing benefit claims in Hackney, a London borough renowned for past problems with its benefit administration.

Its welfare and rights adviser, Mirca Morera, told Housing Today the framework had been "really difficult" and caused further delays in its first two years. "What most local authorities seem to have found was they were all under-resourced," she explained. "You do get extra money, but it isn't enough in terms of staffing costs."

The report also recommended stronger monitoring of benefits administration by government and the rolling out of rent service electronic data to councils.