Hayley MaceA council which has spent nearly 18 months working to prove that it did not overpay nearly �9m in benefits is waiting with bated breath for the final amended bill to arrive later this summer.Hayley Mace

A council which has spent nearly 18 months working to prove that it did not overpay nearly �9m in benefits is waiting with bated breath for the final amended bill to arrive later this summer.

Waveney District Council was landed with a bill last year from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to repay �8.9m in overpaid benefit subsidies.

Waveney insisted that the problem related to payments made between 2004 and 2007 and arose because of the transfer of data from paper to a new computer system and now, after months of finding new evidence, the council has been told that the final bill will be confirmed later this summer, but that it will not be more than �3.6m.

A council spokesman said: 'Our work with the DWP is ongoing and we're hopeful that the figure of �3.6m will be reduced still further.

'It's a credit to all our staff who have worked so hard gathering this evidence.

'It's because we've been able to provide that that the amount has already been brought down significantly, and that's also why the DWP has been prepared to give us some more time to continue our work.

'We were pleased to be told that it will not be more than �3.6m and hope that after some more work this month, it can be reduced even more.'

The DWP agreed earlier this year that the council could pay back an initial sum of no more than �300,000 from its current budget for 2010/11, and a further plan for repayments will be drawn up once the total amount due back is revealed.

The DWP will also consider the council's ability to pay back the money, and its potential impact on services.

As well as having staff working hard to find additional evidence over the past 18 months, council leader Mark Bee and chief executive Stephen Baker have themselves had meetings with the DWP.

A new Audit Commission report into the council's finances and use of resources, which will be presented to the audit and risk management committee on Monday, said: 'Over the past year, the council has shown continued strategic and political leadership to address the underlying causes of the overpayment, as well as lobbying government ministers and officials to secure a decision.

'The council has undertaken significant work revisiting housing benefit records to try to reduce the overpayment.'

The independent report said that while the council's management of its resources was 'satisfactory', its financial standing was weak because of the uncertainty over the DWP repayments, costs from the cancelled Waveney Campus project and potential costs for repairing Southwold harbour, which could total up to �3.4m.

However, auditors have praised Waveney's cost-saving work with other local councils which has improved efficiency in banking, insurance, planning and internal audit staff costs.

The report said: 'The council has done a lot to address weaknesses in financial management and continues to respond properly to the underlying problems and challenges it faces.'