Never mind direct benefits, here's the real problem

One has to be very careful indeed when implementing a policy across an uneven landscape. It can mean that the very poorest have to choose between a basic but decent home and the other necessities of living.

I have expressed my concern before about the risks of extending a system of standard housing allowances, specifically a flat rate of housing benefit paid directly to tenants, to the social housing sector and will do so again if anyone wishes to listen. It is not only the policy that concerns me, though, but its administration. On this too hangs a great deal – especially for the poor and vulnerable.

Nationally, the picture seems to be improving. Some simplifications to the system – or at least, a reduction in the number of changes brought in every year; the fact that pensioners don't have to fill in renewal forms every six months; a wider range of agencies brought in to spread the load of verification; more support from the government for authorities in trouble – have all helped reduce processing times and tackle claims backlogs.

Yet in my own borough of Westminster, housing and council tax benefit processing, which have been contracted out to private firm Capita, have once again deteriorated to a shameful condition after a rocky start (about 25,000 items of post were unopened at one point) and a form of recovery.

Capita says these delays are in the minority and that its times have improved by 24 days over the past three years.

But the trouble is that the failure to respond adequately to housing and council tax benefit claims does not simply show up as a black mark on a performance indicator.

One constituent, already struggling to cope with a special needs child, received two bailiffs’ notices despite owing nothing

Such failure instead generates enormous distress and anxiety, leaving tenants to deal with notices seeking possession and, worse still, leaving those in notional arrears with their council tax facing bailiffs' notices that threaten them with imminent "committal to prison proceedings".

About three weeks ago one of my constituents, already struggling to cope with a special needs child, received two such bailiffs' notices within a week – despite not apparently owing anything at all because she has been in continuous receipt of income support and should be automatically receiving council tax benefit.

Poor benefits administration also does enormous damage to attempts to woo people back to work – which can mean exchanging the security of a low income for a higher income, but also higher risk.

We should be doing everything possible to ease the transition since mothers concerned with feeding their children, for example, will not lightly risk being penniless and faced with possible eviction twice. Yet a young mum about to have her second baby recently told me that she would indeed think again about returning to work because last time Capita apparently took 11 months to process her housing benefit and she had to do the equivalent of a second job in letters and phone calls trying to stave off disaster.

Half my advice surgeries and a big chunk of the work done by my local law centre now seem to be dominated by housing benefit cases once again – as if we did not have enough to do without picking up the pieces for a company that makes handsome enough profits to clear up its own mess.