Managing the transition to Universal Credit at Lambeth Council

Flexible resources from Civica OnDemand support the council during the transition period from housing benefit to Universal Credit.

As in many other parts of the country, Universal Credit is being rolled out across the London Borough of Lambeth, to replace housing and other benefits. But it’s a fairly gradual transition, so the council needs to maintain its ability to process housing benefit cases while supporting the introduction of Universal Credit.

Lambeth found that Civica OnDemand offered the service it needed: fully trained housing benefit officers who can start work quickly, and stay as long as they’re needed.

At first, Civica OnDemand staff took on a backlog of 2,600 housing benefit cases that had built up as vacancies left Lambeth’s in-house team understaffed. Within six months, the backlog had been cleared, and Civica OnDemand switched to providing business-as-usual support; assisting Lambeth to transition from housing benefit to Universal Credit.

Outcomes:

• Backlog of 2,600 housing benefit cases cleared in 6 months
• Close to 100% processing accuracy
• Flexible resources that scale in line with fluctuating demand, avoiding the need for Lambeth to invest in recruitment and training
• Decades of housing benefit expertise and experience to call on
• Rapid familiarisation with Universal Credit processing.

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