BENEFIT claimants in Colchester have to suffer unacceptable delays, according to an inspection report.

The Audit Commission said new claimants waited on average 29 days to receive their benefits, or 16 days where there had been a change in their circumstances.

Its report also criticised the 44 days it took Colchester Council to refer appeals to the Tribunals Service, as well as the number of sanctions it imposed for benefit fraud, which has dropped from 46 two years ago to 27 in the last year.

The council’s finance and audit scrutiny panel heard on Tuesday its benefits service had been rated one of the worst in the country in a league table.

The poor performance prompted the Audit Commission inspection, which found the speed in processing claims had not been good since 2008.

Inspectors also questioned the value for money of the service, which cost £2.7million this year.

Berechurch ward councillor Kim Naish said: “The people who put these claims in are vulnerable people and it is not on to put them under this sort of pressure. I understand claimant numbers have gone up but, if you are making a claim, you’re an individual, and you’re not really interested in how many other people are on benefits.”

Charles Warbouys, head of resources, said: “The inspection was done as we were moving away from being one of the higher risk councils to medium risk.

“The speed of delivery of the service is what triggered it. That’s something we are very conscious of and why we have carried out a fundamental review.

“Performance is getting better, although the overall average is not where we feel we need to be.Where people are able to give us the complete information, we are able to turn claims round in five days.”