Capita Software Services has supplied Denbighshire County Council with a system to minimise errors in benefit claims, accelerate the claims process and reduce fraud. Known as Capita’s Risk and Verification Portal, it integrates neatly with the existing Capita benefits system and could save the council £51k per annum.
With the new system in place, only claims that represent the greatest risk of error undergo full checks and those that represent the least risk are processed more quickly. This means that as well as benefitting from faster processing times, claimants with low risk applications are not required to supply as much supporting evidence, which can be a burden for vulnerable groups. This in turn frees up more resources to handle higher risk claims making it easier to prevent fraud.
Paul Millard, Operations Director at Capita Software Services, said: “The decision to adopt our Risk and Verification Portal is a clear indication that Denbighshire County Council wants to be at the forefront when it comes to improving service and value for money for the tax payer. It also demonstrates their commitment to eliminating fraudulent claim payments.”
Ken Jones, Head of Revenues and Benefits at Denbighshire County Council, said: “Speeding up processing is important to us and we selected Capita’s Risk and Verification Portal not just because it will significantly reduce the time it takes to ascertain eligibility of a claimant, but also because of the easy integration with our core benefits system. As well as improving customer service and helping us meet efficiency targets the Risk and Verification Portal also has the potential to deliver considerable savings.”
Capita’s Risk and Verification Portal uses established data analytics and predictive modelling techniques to calculate the risk or probability of an individual claim containing errors. Capita is the only vendor to have developed a risk and verification product that integrates directly with a benefits processing system.
Denbighshire County Council has been a Capita customer since 1999 and uses Capita’s Revenues and Benefits software to process claims.