Benefits team eyes award

OLDHAM Council’s Benefits Service is in the running for a prestigious award.

It has been nominated in the ‘Most Improved Team of the Year’ category at the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV) Annual Awards 2010 on a five-strong shortlist.

Significant improvements have been made since The Unity Partnership began providing the service under contract to the Local Authority from May, 2007.

In 2007/8 citizens were waiting 32 days for claims to be processed, which ranked Oldham amongst the worst 25 per cent of councils nationally.

Now all new claims and changes of circumstances are processed in around 11 days on average — which puts the service in the top half.