Edinburgh City Council is struggling to overcome a backlog
of council tax and housing benefit claims after it moved to new
systems last year.
The system, based on iWorld software from SX3, replaced an ICL
mainframe-based system. It was installed as of the council's £150m
Smart City partnership with BT.
The system went live last September after staff spent seven weeks
transferring data from the legacy system, but a backlog resulting
from the implementation period and printing problems forced the
council to employ up to 40 temporary staff to clear cases.
At its peak last November the backlog of council tax and housing
benefit correspondence and claims reached 30,000 items.
Mike Peterson, Edinburgh Council's head of revenues and benefits,
said the council had almost eliminated the backlog for public and
private sector housing and owner-occupiers would be cleared in
mid-February.
Problems printing from the system were a serious issue, according
to Peterson. He said, "Most of the difficulties with the new system
related to problems with printed output, which is not related to
the SX3 software. The bills were either not being printed or were
not being printed to an acceptable quality." The problem has now
been "substantially resolved", he added.
However, the Citizens Advice Bureau in Edinburgh said the
implementation of the system was still causing problems for local
residents. One bureau manager referred to tracing council tax and
housing benefit files as an "interminable problem".
Council officials are planning to implement image workflow
technology in July, which will enable council tax and housing
benefits documents to be scanned into the system.