Oxford City Council has vowed to cut the time it takes to process benefit claims, following a damning report earlier this year.

And the councillor responsible for the service has admitted people will suffer if the authority fails.

The Audit Commission, the Government’s public services watchdog, handed the council a zero-star rating in March and said its benefit management was “weak”.

It said the council was failing to deal with claims quickly enough and said the cost of the service was much higher than other authorities.

Following the report, the council appointed a special committee to investigate the problems.

The council has now set a new performance target of handling all benefit claims within 14 days. It was taking 23 days in 2010/11, the Audit Commission said.

It also vowed to process changes in circumstances within 10 days, compared with 17 days in 2010/11.

However, that is still longer than the national average of eight days.

Laura Wilson, deputy manager of the Agnes Smith Advice Centre in Blackbird Leys, said people had gone into arrears and were threatened with eviction by landlords because housing benefit payments had been delayed.

She added: “It is great the council recognises its faults and it is trying to address them.

“The council is generally known to be fairly slow at doing things, so if it can be that quick it would be best for our clients.”

The council’s executive member responsible for the service, Val Smith, said: “We are absolutely focused on making sure that people get the money to pay their rent and keep their accommodation, because it is hard to come by in Oxford.

“We are committed to keeping the targets because, if we do not, people will suffer and our costs will go up.”

The council has also drawn up proposals to “reconfigure” the benefits service so that it can achieve efficiency savings.

It has suggested using self-service on the internet, streamlining ‘low-risk’ claims and putting in place systems to stop the council losing documents.

According to the council’s own figures, it cost them £110 to process each claim in 2009/10, much higher than the national average of £60 to £70.

The decisions were taken at an Executive Board meeting last week.