HOUSING benefit applicants in Colchester are having to wait more than three weeks for their claims to be processed, new figures have revealed.

Between April 2017 and March 2018, new claimants waited an average of 22 days before their application was completed, according to data from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Local authorities are legally required to respond within two weeks, or as soon as is practical.

According to the figures, Colchester Council processed 2,540 new cases over the 12-month period.

Charity Turn2Us, which helps people with financial hardship gain access to welfare benefits, has warned delays in processing benefits can result in eviction and homelessness.

Pritie Billimoria, head of communications, said: “Housing benefit is not a luxury people can afford to wait for.

“It’s not good enough the average wait is almost twice as long as the legal requirement, and with the minimum wait for Universal Credit at 35 days, people are simply being dragged into a waiting game they cannot afford.

"At best, these delays and long waiting times are leaving people on the brink of losing the roof over their head and at worst, are pushing people into homelessness.”

In total there were 10,395 housing benefit claimants in Colchester in February, which is the latest publicly available data.

During the previous year applicants had to wait longer with an average delay of 24 days.

But Colchester was quicker at dealing with current claimants who had changed their living circumstances.

Those applications took on average one week to complete.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We spend around £23 billion a year on housing benefit - more than any other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developmen country as a proportion of gross domestic product.

“We work directly with each local authority to monitor housing benefit performance and this includes the speed of processing which has remained stable.”

The Government is rolling out Universal Credit across the country, however Colchester did not have full service when this data was recorded.

Claimants applying for housing benefit under Universal Credit have to wait five weeks, which includes a four-week assessment period.

The spokesman added: “We will continue to work closely with local authorities as Universal Credit rolls out.”

READ MORE: COUNCIL SAY IT IS PREPARED FOR UNIVERSAL CREDIT ROLL-OUT