Bridgend Council has accepted that lessons need to be learned from how they managed a Welsh Government cost-of-living payment scheme earlier this year (pdf).
Residents living in council tax bands A-D – or in receipt of council tax reductions in bands A-I – were eligible for the £150 payment. An additional £60 payment was made available to those with qualifying criteria later in 2022.
Bridgend Council faced criticism for its slow roll-out compared to neighbouring local authorities.
The report – discussed by a council scrutiny committee yesterday – accepted there were “a number of constraints and barriers, particularly at the start (of the roll-out)”.
Some of the issues highlighted in the report include:
- Lack of staff; partly due to the fact the roll-out began during “budget season”. Some temporary staff were drafted in, but there remained many vacancies in the taxation department.
- The software supplier took a long time to respond to queries and the process was described as “cumbersome”.
- BACS rejections took up a lot of time and resulted in delays, particularly concerning building society accounts.
- When remittance advice/invoices were sent for the payment it was often addressed to the name on the bank account, not the address, meaning some went to the wrong people. The system was eventually changed and fixed.
- A high volume of queries from the public and member/councillor referrals “slowed the process down”.
- The additional discretionary payment scheme launched in September-October 2022 wasn’t well publicised meaning many people who received the £60 payment didn’t know why they did so, prompting them to contact the council.
Some of the key lessons learned by the council include
- Having a dedicated project team for schemes of this magnitude in the future.
- Alternative software should be considered for similar schemes.
- Communication with the public should be clearer and provided more regularly to prevent unnecessary queries.
