A COMPUTER system which handles £600m worth of benefits and tax collections may not be operational on January 1, it emerged last night.

The revenues and benefits system was due to be replaced in April next year, but plans had to be bought forward after the company which supports it was taken over by another operator.

A new £5m three-year deal was signed with Civica to provide the system which integrates council tax, housing benefits and business rates in May.

However, on Tuesday the audit committee, which scrutinises the council's performance, heard the date for the system to go live had been put back twice, leading to fears it will only be ready in mid January.

The delay means anyone registering to pay council tax after moving into the borough or for housing or other benefits in January will not have their applications processed until the change-over has occurred.

At the same meeting the director of governance Jeff Lustig admitted there could be no “assurance” there will not be a repeat of the massive data loss scandal which struck the council earlier this year.

Hugh Fenwick, who authored a report into the theft of discs containing 10,000 former student's data from a staff member's home, presented his findings to the committee and praised the council's response to the problem.

However, Mr Lustig told them despite one of the largest ever training exercises with staff at the authority: “I can't give you an assurance that a similar incident will not happen again.

“In fact, actually being brutally frank I don't think any public authority can give an assurance data will not be lost at some time in the future. We're talking about thousands of employees.”

The One Barnet framework which was drafted after criticism in a report by external auditors Grant Thornton on a lack of overall direction for the scheme was also looked at.

A representative of the auditors, who looked at the scheme, said the plans put forward were “satisfactory” although two Labour members were left dissatisfied with a lack of detail on some of the savings expected to be made.