WARRINGTON Borough Council has apologised after bills for social care service users experienced problems following system 'glitches'.

Around 70 bills, amounting to just under two per cent, encountered issues and resulted in some residents being charged late.

Problems with the new Mosaic software system have been highlighted by the authority, with staff training ongoing.

However, the council is confident that the 'teething problems' are now fixed but it has issued an apology to those affected.

A spokeswoman said: "Mosaic is a complex software system that stores all of the information relating to children and adults, who are assessed to need social care and support, as well as helping to pay hundreds of different providers for the provision of services and invoicing service users for their assessed contribution towards care costs, according to their ability to pay.

"The council processes over 4,000 invoices per month based on each individual person's financial circumstances and the differential charges for the range of social care services.

"As such, it is not wholly surprising that in bringing in a new software system there are a few glitches.

"We apologise for wherever this has occurred.

"However, despite the scale of the project, the Mosaic system is otherwise operating effectively and the benefits from the move will only increase as the system matures and processes are refined to ensure we meet the increasing needs of our customers.

"In terms of numbers, some 70 bills have needed some form of manual intervention, which represents less than two per cent of the total number of customers who receive bills for their care and the vast majority of the teething problems are now fixed.

"The fluctuating care and support needs of our customers means a percentage of bills are always subject to intervention and review."