We help our most vulnerable residents pay their rent and Council Tax through assessing entitlement to means tested Housing Benefits and Council Tax Benefits. These are national welfare benefits based on income, personal circumstances and liability. Last year we dealt with over 20,500 claims and paid out over £110m in Benefits to nearly a quarter of the households in the Borough. 

Working on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills, we assess students’ eligibility and assess the level of financial support available to them in respect of loans and tuition fees for a variety of academic qualifications. We work in partnership with the national Student Loan Company to ensure that students receive their payments on time and provide advice and support to students and parents about the funding available. 

We carry out financial assessments of residents' ability to pay for and the collection of assessed charges, where necessary, for a range of services provided by Community Care and The Children’s Trust. These services include residential accommodation, community care, supporting people, childcare and adoption allowances. 

We promote the take-up of all of the social security welfare benefits by making home visits to customers who are elderly, with mobility problems or whose first language is not English. We also provide advice and information via the widely advertised telephone service and through regular outreach advice surgeries held at local faith and community centres, hospitals and day centres. We also represent people at Social Security appeals. We particularly encourage all users of the Council’s home care service to receive all of the benefits they are entitled to by working closely with the Community Care Service and carrying out welfare benefit visits as part of the Fairer Charging policies. We provide training for community partners and internal services so they can give help and advice on a range of welfare benefits. Examples include Redbridge Age Concern and social workers who work with young people leaving or who have left care. We also provide money Advice/debt counselling to help residents with money problems to manage their debt and maximise their income. Last year we helped clients with debts totalling £1^.3m of which a significant amount was Council Tax and Rent owed to Redbridge.  Good working relationships have been developed with the local courts and community organisations.

We have contact with every household and business in the Borough.  There are 97,000 domestic properties and 6,000 business properties in Redbridge. We are seeking to collect £97m Council Tax and £43m Business Rate this year. 

We also provide a wide range debt collection services ranging from allotments to the zoo licence for Hainault Forest Country Park for the whole council. 

We process payments of £67m from all of the Council's customers. Money is reconciled and banked on a daily basis ensuring the Council's cash flow remains constant. We provide facilities for automated telephone payments and Internet payments.