The government's Better Regulation Taskforce has called for urgent reform to a "flawed" housing benefits system that "is almost impossible to understand".

A report published on Thursday by the bureaucracy-busting taskforce, headed up by Lord Haskins, slams a benefit system that is so mired in red tape that it is often a barrier to the very people that it is supposed to help and gives the government 60-days to react to its criticisms ands recommendations.

"The Housing Benefit system is flawed, failing to help those it is designed to help and acting as a barrier towards returning to work," finds the report.

Lord Haskins said that the system was as confusing for the local authorities who administer it as it is for claimants who are supposed to benefit from its help.

"Everyone we spoke to in the course of our research said that Housing Benefit is almost impossible to understand. The rules are complex and it is not clear how decisions are made. In many parts of the country, people are facing long delays and suffering enormous financial hardship" he said.The hard-hitting report, "Housing Benefit: a case study of lone parents", highlights the need for good advice and information to help people - both claimants and officials - but found that co-operation between the various agencies involved in Housing Benefit was "patchy".

It finds that claimants are facing unnecessary bureaucracy and hardship.

"There does need to be better liaison between government bodies, both local and national, and the various advice agencies. We heard of instances where claimants were being served with an eviction notice for rent arrears from one part of a local authority, whilst another part of the same local authority is still assessing the claim for benefit. Communications within local authorities needs to improve," the report found.

The taskforce also examined how the benefit system impacted on government attempts to remove barriers to work and "recommends that there should be a no-quibble guarantee to lone parents to return to housing benefit if they discover that they cannot balance work and parenting, which would leave them no worse off than if they had not started work".

The report also slams the poor co-ordination between the Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities which has led to the duplication of claim forms, "leading to unnecessary delays and bureaucracy".

Lord Haskins observed that many of the report's findings were not new and gave the government a 60-day deadline to respond.

"Many of the recommendations in the report have been made by others. But we have seen little action in response. Where this is different is that government must respond to our report within 60 days. We would urge them to implement what we consider to be common-sense changes to the system in order to forward the aims of improving public services, and ensuring that all those who can work are able to do so," he said.