A COUNTY Durham authority which was criticised for its delays in delivering benefits has welcomed an inspection from the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI).

Teesdale District Council took 89 days to process claims in the six months to last September.

Last month the Government announced there would be snap inspections of authorities that took more than 80 days.

However the council now says it has taken steps to remedy the delays, so the monthly figure for December was 49 days.

Susan Reay, the council's director of corporate services, said: "We welcome the inspection. We realise that we were performing very badly in the service at the beginning of the year, but there has been significant, measurable improvement during the year."

Mrs Reay apologised to clients who had been inconvenienced by the poor performance, which was due to the introduction of a computer system. Additional staff have since been recruited.

Councillor David Armstrong, chairman of the administration and governance committee, said: "The staff have worked very hard to clear the backlog and improve their performance. However, more can be done and we hope that the BFI inspection will help us to improve even further."

The detailed inspection will start in March and a report is expected by the end of July.