Revenues and Benefits Service Aims

The Royal Borough is committed to efficient and effective service provision, always remembering that the customer comes first.  We guarantee to treat customers with respect and in a friendly manner. Our service standards will enable customers to judge whether they have had fair treatment.

The Revenues and Benefits Unit will provide a service to its customers based on the following standards: ·

• We will be polite, courteous, fair and helpful in our dealings with all of our customers.
• We will avoid the use of jargon wherever possible.
• We guarantee to treat everyone with dignity and without discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, disability or   religion.
• We will apologise when we make a mistake or give incorrect information.
• We will ensure personal information is treated confidentially.
• We will encourage comments about how we can improve our services and seek to resolve and learn from complaints to improve our service. (Please see the Council's leaflet 'Putting Customers First' - Your Guide to Making a Complaint.)
• We guarantee to seek views of our customers and take their views into account when reviewing the level and quality of our services by monitoring complaints, comments and suggestions.
• We will provide special facilities for customers with hearing difficulties.
• We will provide 'large type', 'Braille' or audio tape facilities for visually impaired customers.
• We will provide a translation service whenever required.

• We will ensure proper enquiry desk cover during office hours and aim to see all visitors to the offices within 5 minutes.
• We will wear visible name badges.
• We will be happy to make an appointment with you should you require it and provide private and confidential facilities for that appointment if requested.
• The reception areas will be maintained with up to date and relevant information.
• If we need to visit you we will always explain what we are doing and show an identity card.

Telephones

• We will attempt to answer all of our telephone calls within 7 seconds.
• We will attempt to resolve all queries at a first point of contact.
• We will provide customers with a call back service should a query not be resolved when you first telephone  us.
• We will give customers our surname and telephone number for future reference where requested.
• Where practicable we will do as much business on the telephone to avoid delays with the post.  

In Writing (including e-mail)

• We guarantee to respond immediately to urgent enquiries.
• Aim to respond to more general enquiries within 10 working days of receipt.
• We will personalise all correspondence and include officer contact names and direct telephone numbers to help customers contact the person most able to help them with their enquiry.
• Service Standards for Council Tax, Business Rates and Housing Benefit 2002/2003 

 We aim to:

• Collect the Council tax and Business Rate efficiently, promptly and vigorously.
• Publish our current Recovery Policy so that everyone can see that they are being fairly treated.
• Improve take up of Direct Debits wherever possible to promote efficiency.
• Provide the means to pay your Council Tax by debit card on the Council's website.
• Maintain a high level of level accuracy in all Benefit determinations.
• Meet as many of the Performance Standards for Benefits set down by the Department of Work and Pensions as possible, particularly in relation to the processing of claims (see below.)
• Implement new Software Systems during this year and next to help us to achieve and monitor our commitment to the above Aims.
• Work towards the achievement of Charter Mark accreditation for excellence with a view to making an application not later than 2004 for Council Tax.

Service Aims for Housing and Council Tax Benefit 2003/2004

We aim to:

• Process new claims within 36 days of receiving initial claim (this period includes the time needed to  request further information).
• Process at least 90% of new claims  within 14 days of receiving full information.
• Calculate changes of circumstances within 5 days once all information is received.
• Process almost 99% of claims accurately
• Pay Rent Allowance in 75% of cases on time or within 14 days.

Service Aims for Collection of Council Tax 2006/2007

We aim to collect 95% of Council Tax due for this year before 31st March 2007

We Welcome Your Views    

Your constructive comments are always welcome and will be acknowledged and taken into account when reviewing the way we do things.   By using the following e-mail address you can make your suggestions for improvement of the service that we provide direct to the  Revenues and Benefits Manager : benefits@rbwm.gov.uk