+ Risk Based Verification

Fully compliant with DWP's HB/CTB S11/2011 guidance and widely available through major back office and e-Forms software, Coactiva's Risk Based Verification solution is now used by over 20 Local Authorities throughout the UK.

The solution provides an individual risk rating for all claims, based on the likelihood of it being fraudulent or erroneous. Benefit Officers are then empowered to apply a verification process which is appropriate and proportionate to the risk posed by each claim.

To ensure maximum accuracy for Benefit assessors, Coactiva is now incorporating business intelligence from credit reference agencies to inform the decision making process even further. Using this enhanced data the higher risk claims are automatically exposed to greater scrutiny, increasing the amount of fraud and error detected for those claims.

 

Coactiva's Intercept RBV is:

• the only solution verified and approved by the DWP - through live trials over three years
• the only solution proven in live use - now adopted by over 35 Local Authorities
• the only solution to offer cross-LA claim matching
• the only solution to utilise a fourth generation risk model tuned to your specific needs
• the only solution to offer an increased hit rate via instant credit reference data matching
• the only solution to include an automated monthly reporting functionality to satisfy audit requirements
• the only solution to be available through all e-form and back office systems

Intercept RBV from Coactiva is the only Risk Based Verification solution for new claims and change in circumstances that has been fully proven and tested.

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Coactiva Intercept's Risk Based Verification approach can help Local Authorities successfully improve Fraud and Error detection at the Gateway, improve processing times and significantly reduce costs from across the business.

Contact us today to see how your Local Authority can:

• Reduce the cost of verifying low risk claims by up to 80%
• Reduce outgoing post by up to 75% and post received by up to 30%
• Reduce staff hours spent at the customer service counter
• Improve time taken to process new claims by up to 30%
• Remove the resource burden for low risk claims and deploy in other value added activities
• Improve Customer satisfaction by determining and paying benefit quicker
• Reduce wasted effort on defective claims by up to 25%
• Identify up to 25% more Fraud and Error at the Gateway

Borrowing on initiatives from other industries such as banking, Straight Through Processing enables service transactions to be wholly conducted electronically without the need for re-keying or manual intervention, subject to legal and regulatory restrictions.

The concept can now be applied to benefit's processing by combining e-channel technology with RBV. Information is captured on the e-form by the customer using online services and the RBV risk score is called on completion. Where the risk of error is low, the claim information can be imported directly into the back office benefits system and processed automatically.

This seamless process is a great example of a truly self-serve model.

Please complete the relevant fields below to find out how much your Local Authority could save using Intercept RBV.

Colchester Borough Council's innovative use of risk based analytics brings significant process improvement and financial reward

The Challenge

• To implement an intelligence based solution that would maximise efficiencies and effectiveness within the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit new claim assessment process.
• To reduce the cost of assessing new claims to plug the budgetary gap left by the reduction in Administration Grant by£70,000 per annum.
• To find a solution that satisfies the findings of Revenues and Benefits fundamental service review.
• To increase the level of performance that has historically been given to the Colchester Borough Council customers.

The Solution

The Intercept RBV solution enables managers to intelligently target resource to those claims that pose the greater risk of fraud or error and simplify the assessment process for those claims that pose the least risk.

In common with all councils in these fiscally challenging times, Colchester Borough Council in the East of England have been called upon to drive down costs through increased efficiencies whilst also maintaining their high levels of performance. Serving the second largest borough in England of around 180,500 people and with a population increasing faster than average, Colchester's Revenue and Benefits Department needed to find a way of meeting imposed financial constraints and managing their increasing workload without dropping levels of customer service.

The effects of the economic downturn have seen workload increase across the service with examples of activity increasing by 140% amongst certain customer types. Colchester case load on the whole is rapidly increasing with around 7,000 new claims per annum being assessed; forecasts suggest that this level is set to increase by more than 30% over the coming years.

To compound this, it was announced that Colchester would no longer receive its £70,000 annual Administration Grant from 2010/2011. This prompted Colchester's Revenue's and Benefits Department to undertake a fundamental service review that committed to efficiency savings of at least £450,000 over 3 years and was formulated around 3 key drivers: customer service; efficiencies; and effectiveness.

The Cabinet has agreed to allocate an additional £70,000 in its 2010/11 Budget as one-off funding to allow for the implementation of any efficiency saving findings from fundamental service review.

Key Benefits

• A cost saving of £60,000 has directly been attributed to the implementation of the Intercept RBV solution (excluding savings seen through reduced postage and the scanning of documents).
• Fraud and error detection rates have increased significantly through the adoption of a risk based approach.
• Customer satisfaction levels have increased, due to fewer contact points and faster processing times for new claims.
• 

"RBV has greatly improved our customers' journeys. On average customers were having to come back to us 5 or 6 times in order to resolve their new claims. This has been reduced in most of the low risk cases to 1 or 2 touches as there is less need to provide evidence. Claims are also dealt with more quickly than before and administration costs have reduced.

Intercept Verify and the subsequent processes and procedures introduced have greatly improved efficiencies and effectiveness within the Benefits Team."

Lynne Hutton, Benefits Manager, Colchester Borough Council

 

A Risk Based approach to Verification

The existing new claim process was identified as an area where process improvements could dramatically affect the customer experience and also result in significant cost savings to the department.

Colchester Borough Council implemented Coactiva's Intercept RBV solution in June 2010. The solution uses an analytically based approach to apportion levels of risk to each Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit new claim, which would then in-turn influence the level of verification required for assessment. The result being that lower risk claims could be processed far more quickly and efficiently than previously. On the flip side, high risk claims would then be subjected to an increased level of scrutiny by Colchester's Benefit Fraud Investigation Team.

The high risk claim strategy used by Colchester's Fraud Team has proved extremely successful, yielding a 40% hit rate for fraud and error. This has ensured that the amount of fraud and error detected after the implementation of Intercept RBV has actually increased by 20% from the traditional verification methods previously used.

Lynne Hutton, the Benefits Manager at Colchester says that"in spite of concerns that using Intercept RBV would reduce the levels of F & E detected, the level has increased due to effective and efficient targeting of claims more likely to be incorrect. 40% of our high risk cases, on which we do a credit check, showed that there was a discrepancy between the application form and what was found in the check, proving the effectiveness in the Verify risk models."

Intelligently applying the right amount of verification to each new claim has also benefited Colchester's customers; dramatically speeding up process times for low risk claims by reducing the number of contact points needed before benefit can be put into payment. Across the board, the average processing times have decreased by 20% since Intercept RBV was implemented.

The solution has been a key element in the Councils fundamental service review, giving an annual saving of more than £60,000. This ongoing yearly saving has helped Colchester Borough Council exceed the financial guidelines outlined in the review, whilst also meeting the targets set out within their 3 key drivers: customer service; efficiencies; and effectiveness.