GRADUAL improvement is being made to a backlog of housing benefit payments that hit tenants and landlords.

A spokesman for North Wiltshire District Council, which is responsible for paying housing benefits to housing associations and private landlords, said: "North Wiltshire District Council is currently making great progress on housing benefits following a severe backlog of work encountered earlier this year."

He said the backlog followed the loss of many experienced staff.

Now, he said, a new group of benefits assessors have been appointed.

"This has nearly halved the amount of work outstanding and reduced the waiting time for new claims benefits from 12 to 18 weeks," the spokesman added. "It is recognised that until the arrears are finally cleared, people may experience problems in paying their rent until their benefit claim is resolved.

"Should this be the case, claims requiring urgent attention as a result of any benefit delays can be processed within a few working days in order to protect the roof over the tenant's head."

Chippenham town councillor Nina Phillips said: "Tenants accrue more and more debt and then face eviction once the debt gets to about £1,000."

A landlord of a house in Corsham, who bought the property at the end of last year, said it took six months for the first rent payment to come through from the council.

The landlord, who did not wish to be named, said the first tenant to answer his advert to rent the house was on housing benefits.

But he said: "If I thought about it carefully and I had my time again I would have waited until I had a private tenant."

He said: "I was quite lucky in that I could afford to see money coming out of my account for a few months."

But he was surprised when he received no apology or explanation from the council about the delay and had been close to writing a letter of complaint.

A spokesman for Westlea Housing Association said: "The backlog of benefits applications has been a problem for the past couple of years but we are encouraged that the District Council is now having real success in tackling the backlog and that the number of applications affected is now significantly less than it was."