SWINDON Council has come under fire from the Government for not paying housing benefits fast enough.

New statistics show it took 60 days for officers to process new claims ministers say it should take no longer than 36 days.

And despite recent improvements in speed of payments, Swindon still lagged behind the national average time of 42 days.

Chris Pond, minister for pensions and benefits, said Swindon was one of the councils that had to raise its game.

He said: "I congratulate all those authorities that improved processing times and the housing benefit staff who made this possible.

"But too many authorities are still not meeting the standard that the Government has set and even 42 days is too long for someone to wait if they need help paying their rent.

"Delays in handling Housing Benefit claims could mean that tenancies are put at risk and that's unacceptable."

The statistics for 2003/2004 also revealed Swindon Council struggled to accurately pay housing benefits.

Mistakes were made in ten per cent of cases, compared to the national average rate of just two per cent.

The high error level meant the council is among the poorest performers in the country for making correct payments.

And it failed to meet national rates for coping with changing circumstances of claimants.

It took officers 22 days to process these details twice as long as average.