A councillor’s fears over the introduction of the Universal Credit system he likened to the poll tax has been addressed amid concerns over how parts of South Holland District Council is run.
Coun Chris Brewis raised the concerns at the meeting of the authority’s Governance and Audit Committee last Thursday, July 26.
As reported in last week’s edition of The Voice, the Annual Opinion into the council by the Eastern Internal Audit Services rated the authority as providing “Limited Assurance”, the second lowest possible.
At the meeting, Coun Brewis asked the author of the annual opinion, internal audit consortium manager Emma Hobbs about his concerns over Universal Credit, the government’s new benefits initiative which has just launched in the district.
He particularly referenced claimants who live in rural communities who may struggle to attend South Holland District Council regularly as many are required to do to ensure they get their benefits.
Coun Brewis told the meeting: “I believe a number of people have not got a clue what’s going on and I believe this could be as bad as the poll tax was in the 1980s.
Internal audit consortium manager Emma Hobbs, said: “One council we worked with was one of the first to roll out Universal Credit, and it was extremely tough times and challenging but things did improve greatly on the back of changes.
“As South Holland is coming into this a little bit later on a lot of the biggest issues have been addressed.”
The district council’s Lewis Duckell added: “We’ve done an awful lot in terms of preparation and learning lessons that have affected other authorities.
“We’ve been working on self service and point of contact for people to use. There’s computers here (Priory Road office) for people to use.
“With the roll out of Universal Credit, we’re not seeing any significant issues but it is still early days in terms of how it’s affecting South Holland.”
The auditors also reiterated their report findings and told councillors they felt the recommendations for improvements that were put forward were being carried out.
