Our (unitary) authority is looking at its claim forms and in particular those leading to means tested financial assessments.

This is for example where forms are used to decide:
Eligibility for
· Housing / Council Tax Benefit
· Grants or services
Or how much the customer is to be charged for care services.

The idea is to make things simpler!

I'd be grateful if folk could let me know
· Whether and which other councils have gone along this route
· What progress they have made
· Any known or potential stumbling blocks identified

No point in us reinventing the circular thingy if you are all merrily whizzing along with 4-wheel drive!

If you have looked at or thought about this ….. Or know someone / somewhere that has ….. Then I'd like to hear from you!


Pam Cochrane
Single Financial Assessment Project
01253 476844
[email protected]

Some years ago a unitary authority I worked for looked into this but hit the problem of requesting information unnecessarily. If the client was only applying for free school meals did they really want to disclose mortgage details, for example.

It seems to me that the solution is to be very clear about what data you need and why (we had a chart with all the individual pieces of data down the page -name, address, date of birth etc - and all the services who needed that info - education, HB, social services, etc across the page and entered ticks as approriate.

You have to make sure you explain why you need the info to the person completing the form. You could have different pages for different services, (eg if you are applying for a grant please complete this section, if not go to next section).

Sometimes you are prevented from demanding info, for example,when charging for social services you need to be careful about collecting partner's details. If you explain that there is no obligation to provide this but it will enable a welfare benefits check etc, the client can make the choice about whether to provide this info or not.

We never did get ours off the ground but new technology could help. Tablet PCs can be used to complete forms and they can easily prompt the officer completing the form to the right sections based on trigger questions.

I hope you manage to sort something out. If you do, perhaps you could publish it on Rightnet?
Good Luck,

Cathy Bullions
Benefits & Charging Consultant
Surrey County Council