The Benefits Agency's role: The Benefits Agency are responsible for the effective and secure management of the distribution and payment of social security benefits. They give advice and information about benefits, handle claims reviews and appeals, and arrange nearly 1,000 million payments and recoveries a year. Their aim is to streamline the way business is delivered, ensuring that improved services, better security and value for money are provided to all their customers. On the Newcastle estate, some 4,500 of their 67,000 staff in the UK administer retirement pensions, several centrally-managed benefits such as those for widows and overseas recipients, and provide certain central services for the Department.
Accommodation requirements: Some 2,100 of the Benefits Agency's staff in the Newcastle area are accommodated in Tyneview Park. These premises were built in the early 1990s as the first stage of a programme to redevelop the Longbenton site. They already provide the working environment the Benefits Agency require and are to be retained in the redeveloped estate. The Benefits Agency also have around 900 staff on the Longbenton site. The main objectives for the Benefits Agency under the new arrangements are to ensure that they receive a good quality of maintenance at reasonable cost at Tyneview Park.
The Benefits Agency's views of the Private Finance project: The Benefits Agency's representative felt that:
■ there should have been closer appraisal of the decision to include Tyneview Park in the Newcastle Estate Project, given its status as a Benefits Agency building;
■ the Project Board should have included more user representation;
■ there should have been better communication between users on one hand and the project team and board on the other, on a range of issues; and
■ the project team should have had greater technical expertise in areas of accounting, estates management, finance, legal and procurement practice.