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NEWS October 26 2001
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| The PRIVATE Sector: Newham brings Housing Benefit back in-house The disastrous privatisation of Newham’s Housing Benefit system which delayed payments to thousands of residents ended on Monday. The council’s seven year contract with CSL (subsidiary of consultants Deloitte Touche) was torn up following a review which revealed the privatisation cost the council up to £2 million. CSL took on a backlog of 19,000 documents, which had rocketed to over 43,000 by May 2000. By May this year the backlog had been reduced to 5,554, but partly by foreclosing thousands of unactioned documents. Three Unison shop stewards working for CSL were sacked after revealing the incompetence, malpractice and mistreatment of staff in the department (see CW Newsletter 1) Their tribunal case against CSL is due to take place in January, and the sacked staff believe that as the council’s own report has confirmed their allegations, their position has been vindicated. According to the report, delays are ‘endemic’, and it is still taking three months to process a new claim to payment, as against a government target of two weeks. PFI hospital design ‘disaster’ says head of government advisory board The BBC documents objectors to the design of new privately-built hospitals. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1615000/1615004.stm Liverpool schools go private Construction firm Jarvis has been granted a £300m contract to build or renovate 18 schools in Liverpool http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1604000/1604964.stm |