THE damning findings of the Audit Commission about Oxford City Council’s benefits service should concern us all.

The service deals with thousands of people in the city and handles about £70m a year.

It has received a zero star rating from the Audit Commission, which highlighted deficiencies in dealing with people on the phone and handling complaints or appeals, and with sorting out errors – including ones where claimants have been overpaid.

Once again we get a stock response to this type of report: We’ve taken on board things were going wrong and we’ve tightened up.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the organisations hoovering up public money to provide services were all doing their jobs competently and didn’t need to “learn lessons”?

Why did the city council need to take professional advice to put its benefits system right? Why can’t it identify its own mess and sort it out?

The Audit Commission’s Tim Savill is quite right that this department is providing an essential safety net.

When it fails, it is failing vulnerable people already in difficult situations.

It badly affects their lives and that is not acceptable.