A LANDLORD today hit out at the private company processing housing benefit claims after she waited 95 days to be paid the rent she was owed.

Gail Thomas-Fisher, of Marsh House Lane, Darwen, said the delay left her stressed and struggling to pay her mortgage, and her tenant, a grandmother with three kids, terrified of eviction.

A month ago Blackburn with Darwen Council and Capita, which took over the processing of Housing Benefit claims last year, were criticised by a scrutiny committee for delays.

Figures showed it took 74 days on average to process new claims, while less than half of renewal applications were being processed within the expected 14 days.

This was blamed on the hand over of parts of the benefits service last summer to Capita -- the private firm doing much of the council's administrative work.

Capita process and check claims, but government regulations means they still need to be authorised by the council, which creates a two-tier system.

Capita and the council promised to take on extra staff to tackle the problem, but Mrs Thomas-Fisher claimed the situation should have improved by now. She has rented out the property in Higher South Street, Darwen, since late 1999 to the grandmother, who is in her late 40s.

But she was only paid part of the rent she was owed and ended up £261 pounds out of pocket until the balance was settled last week.

Mrs Thomas-Fisher said she called Capita every week from January to find out what the cause of delay was, but said: "I felt like I was being fobbed off because I was promised the money so many times and it never came.

"I have a mortgage on the property which is £250 a month, as well as one on my own home. The waiting left me short of money and was stress we really didn't need. We struggled by for almost four months. My tenant kept ringing me and was frightened, but it wasn't her fault. She was panicking and thought she would end up being responsible for the rent. It wasn't good for her health knowing if the money wasn't coming or not. She thought she might have been evicted, which I would never have done."

Councillor Maureen Bateson, executive member for citizens and consumer rights at Blackburn with Darwen Council, thanked people for their patience and apologised for any inconvenience.

She added: "The council and Capita have been working together to reduce the backlog of benefit claims.

"The top performing unitary authorities in benefits administration have a target of 41 days to process claims.

"It is our aim to get as close as we can to that target in the next financial year which begins on April 1."

A spokesperson for Capita said they would catch up with the backlog soon and that it had taken a while for things to settle down after the transfer of services.