WEST Devon Borough Council has said its online claim form for new benefit claimants has substantially reduced the amount of time it takes for a new claim to be processed.

Over 40% of new claims submitted in August were processed within 10 days. Before the roll out of the new online function, it took on average 38 days to process a new claim.  

Lead member for health and wellbeing Cllr Lois Samuel said: ‘When we enable residents to give us information via an online form we are cutting out the middle man, the information goes directly into the system.

‘We have also made it possible for residents to take photos of their documents and upload those to the website as well. Uploading documents is as easy as taking a photo with your smart phone. Again this saves huge amounts of time as we do not have to wait for documents to arrive via the post.’

Benefits claimants in West Devon are also now able to tell the council of their change of circumstances via the website. 

Anyone wanting to make a claim or tell West Devon Borough Council about changes in their circumstances should visit www.westdevon.gov.uk/benefits