Agenda item

To receive an update on the performance of the Council’s Revenues and Benefits Service under Anglian Revenues Partnership.

Members considered information provided by Councillor Lorraine King, Theresa Mann, Katey Mills and Phil Butler from ARP together with Mrs French, Anna Goodall,

Members made comments asked questions, and received responses as follows:

·        Councillor Miscandlon raised concerns about delays by the Valuation Office Agency, stating that he has a constituent for example who has been waiting for eight-month for a valuation officer to come and value joining two properties into one and, could the panel explain the delay on these sorts of items? Lorraine King responded that the Valuation Office Agency changed its systems last year and as a result they have seen some significant delays in processing. She continued that the Valuation Office Agency is a separate entity to ARP and managed by HMRC.

·       Councillor Roy asked about recovery and collection levels for fraud debt? Katey Mills responded that the 70–75% collected/active arrangement figure at the nine months period, any debt that was not collected will then go through the usual recovery cycle and moved through to enforcement.

·       Councillor Hay asked with the collection of Council Tax, particularly fraud, a large proportion of that collection goes to County Council, are County Council now giving Fenland District Council sufficient money to help with this collection? Councillor Mrs French confirmed that County Council are helping Fenland District Council.

·       Councillor Miscandlon stated that the assumption from ARP is that most people are online and happy to deal with modern technology, which is not true and he would like to understand how ARP are planning to alleviate this? Lorraine King responded that ARP’s view is, if they can encourage as many people as possible to use the online service this gives the customer an automated, efficient service which then free’s up officer time to help the deliver the service in a variety of ways to other customers.

·        Councillor Miscandlon challenged the level of public promotion of ARP services, suggesting posters and better engagement with Town and Parish Councils, noting they had not seen any promotions. Lorraine King stated that there are a variety of posters across all the contact centres along with rolling promotions on social media. Anna Goodall added that the model Fenland utilises in conjunction with the partnership, is that customers can contact the Council through the contact centre then that way staff can follow the process through. Councillor Miscandlon suggested contacting Town and Parish Councillors as there has not been any leaflets that come through their offices and this can be a fast way of getting information across to members of the community.

·        Councillor Barber asked what Fenland DD projects stands for? Theresa Mann confirmed that the DD stands for Direct Debt. Councillor Barber also asked what WSIT means on the presentation? Phil Butler confirmed that WSIT stands for West Suffolk IT.

·       Councillor Barber stated that she had noted that ARP are dealing with 1,500 changes of address each week and asked, is this across all nine areas or just the Fenland area? Theresa Mann stated that this was over the five main Council areas ARP deals with.

·        Councillor Roy suggested a collaboration with digital hubs and warm hubs to support people (including senior citizens) who struggle with digital access, noting some areas have low internet access. Lorraine King responded that this is something that can be investigated.

·       Councillor Carney asked if ARP work with professional agencies and professional charitable bodies such as P3, the NHS and social prescribers who visit vulnerable people at their homes. Lorraine King stated the teams are trained to work in the communities’ with team referrals, this allows the team to identify someone who is vulnerable and from there this person is passed back to the communities’ team at Fenland where they have all the local connections in place to support that individual.

·        Councillor Foice-Beard asked for access to one of the slides that was not working on the presentation.

·       Councillor Murphy pointed out that in one part of the presentation it stated faster, efficient online services’ but he is concerned about the older generation slipping backwards if they get too efficient online. Lorraine King agreed with the statement and reiterated her comment from before that by encouraging the majority online this will free up agents to support others who do prefer other methodsof assistance.

·       Councillor Hicks suggested having someone designated to the online service to help the elderly when they call in. Lorraine King stated that there is a group of people who are specifically trained experts to support vulnerable clients.

·       Councillor Roy asked if ARP are considering an app-based approach for the future? Lorraine King stated that ARP do not have their own app, but it is something that is being investigated for the future which would work similar to a banking app.

Members noted the information provided.