MORE people than ever before are pleased with the help they get from Lancashire's welfare rights service, according to a new survey.

Lancashire County Council carried out the postal survey, targeting a sample group of 750 people who had used the service within the previous three months.

The survey results were the best since the county council, which runs the welfare advice service, began asking the public what they thought of it six years ago.

More than two thirds of those sent the survey forms returned them, and almost 97 per cent of those rated the service as either "very good" or "fairly good".

Six people out of 504 described it as either "poor" or "very poor".

Lancashire's welfare rights and social inclusion sub committee chairman Frank McKenna described the outcome as "interesting" and said they would be used to improve the service.

He said: "We asked 28 questions in this year 2000 survey aimed at finding out as much as possible from out customers on access, availability of advice sessions, telephone advice, response to letters and their overall impression of the service.

"I am delighted to see such a high figure for people who are very satisfied with our performance."