A CITY councillor today hailed the "impressive" progress of the council's benefit service.

City of York Council came in for criticism in a damning Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) report last December, which said the Guildhall's housing and council tax benefits service was poor.

But Coun Quentin Macdonald, executive member for resources, will receive a report on Monday at the executive member's advisory panel, setting out the council's progress since then.

He said the primary cause of the report's findings was disruption caused by changing to a new computer system in August 2003, which entailed a five-week shut down, and when the BFI reported problems were largely in the past.

He said next week's report will show that over the last year the number of claims received increased by eight per cent, the number of claims in the office for processing was less than a third of the number a year ago and claims over four weeks old were less than a quarter.

Average payment time had also halved.

Welcoming Monday's report, Coun Macdonald said: "The true picture of change over the past year is truly impressive."

Updated: 12:42 Saturday, May 14, 2005