The backlog of outstanding claims is continuing to fall rapidly at Oxford City Council's housing benefits department.

The department has been plagued by problems over the past two years, many of them caused by a new computer system.

Difficulties caused for staff by the new system led to a huge backlog of outstanding items and the total number at one point last year reached 9,236.

By last month, the figure had been reduced to 6,729, after the 50-strong benefits team vowed to clear all outstanding items by May.

Staff have held a number of blitz weeks, where as many people as possible agreed not to take holidays, unless unavoidable.

Yesterday, Andy Thurman, assessment officer with additional responsibilities, who is also Unison staff representative, said the backlog was down to 4,842 items on January 2.

He added that the total figure was "going down well".

Alex Hollingsworth, leader of the council's Labour group, said: "The department is clearly making excellent progress.

"It is good that the backlog is being cleared, but I understand that the more difficult claims may not be processed first, so the progress rate could slow down.

"I hope the management of the department has changed sufficiently to ensure that such a fiasco does not happen again.

"A few years ago, Oxford city used to have a good reputation for housing benefits and we need to get that back."

Seven new staff were employed last year to ensure the department achieves it target of clearing the backlog by the May deadline agreed with councillors.

Last summer, it emerged that the department had been 'over-running' claims -- continuing to make payments without updating checks on the eligibility of claimants.

This practice is against Government guidelines and may have cost the council £1m of the 95 per cent of the subsidy it is entitled to claim.

The practice has now ceased, and current staff point out that they were only following the instructions of a previous management team, and were not acting unprofessionally.

Last year, advice centre staff at The Barton Project in Underhill Circus also threatened the city council with legal action because a large number of claims were not being tackled within 14 days, a target set by the Government.