NEEDY and vulnerable people claiming benefits in the district are receiving a poor standard of service, an official report has said.

The Audit Commission has given Epping Forest District Council's benefits department its lowest possible rating- zero stars- after finding a catalogue of problems that needed urgently addressing.

Commission senior manager Ian Davidson said: “The benefits service at Epping Forest District Council is showing few signs of improvement. Customers are waiting too long for their claims to be dealt with and overall they are dealt with poorly by such a key council service, which helps support people most in need.”

Jane Allen, 26, of Margherita Place, Waltham Abbey, experienced the faults in the council's system first hand when she was forced to claim benefits after a horrific motorbike crash in 2008.

Despite suffering severe leg and arm injuries and lying in a coma for four days, Miss Allen said she had enormous problems claiming the housing and council tax benefits she needed when she was forced to leave her old job.

She said: “I found them extremely unhelpful and unfortunately it just seemed to me they didn't know what they were doing.

“They were very slow to do anything. If you query anything it gets their backs up. They get rude over the telephone then they write a note on the computer saying you've been rude when it was them being rude in the first place.

“It was a very long process. I had to go through solicitors in the end.”

Wheelchair-user Terry Payne, 64, of Greenleas, Waltham Abbey, said he had endless difficulties with his disability benefits.

He said: “Last year they didn't work out my benefits properly. It's their mistake but now they want me to pay it back.

“I look at the letters they send out and I can't understand what they're on about. I have to ring them up.

“Sometimes they can't help you enough, other times they can be a bit nasty. I think quite a few other people must be in the same position with the way they treat me.”

Council deputy leader Chris Whitbread said: “I am very disappointed with the conclusions of this report. I know that all benefits staff work extremely hard in difficult circumstances to make sure benefits applications are processed accurately and as quickly as is possible.

“The Audit Commission has stated that frontline staff also provide very good customer care to all our claimants.”

Mr Whitbread put the poor performance down to the recent economic downturn which he said had created an increased workload for staff, and a changeover in benefits processing systems in 2008.