A GOVERNMENT watchdog has warned a Teesside benefits department that it needs to improve its performance.

The Benefits Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) has told Stockton Borough Council that it must reduce the time it takes to process claims.

In the BFI's Best Value report into the department, which handles about 20,000 claims every year, the section was awarded a one-star rating, out of a possible three.

It also said the council should reduce its backlog of work, improve its publicity and give customers a better telephone service.

Council chiefs said they had already improved the average process time and were improving all the time.

Linda Stephenson, the council's benefits manager, said: "There are no nasty shocks in the report, but we admit that, at the time of the inspection in 2000/2001, our performance had slipped.

"Our average claim clearance time then was 72 days, which was unacceptable. We have now got it down to 47 days, which is still above the national average but on the right track. We hope to get it down to the Government target of 35.

"We have also got rid of the backlog, which at one time stood at about 8,000 jobs to do.

"We had problems because it took us quite a long time to get the evidence we needed against people committing fraud. Also, we lost a number of experienced workers at the time. Things are improving now. We're getting a new IT system in, we can spot backlogs before they happen, and we deal with people's claims quicker.

"We thought the most important part of the report was the positive aspects."

Among the good news in a report that described Stockton's overall performance as fair, was a strong commitment to staff training, high staff morale and good working relations with landlords.

Last year, the council paid out about £43m in housing benefits, which amounted to nearly a quarter of the authority's expenditure.