Govtech blog

The latest news and digital transformation insights from Govtech.

Posts about:

Universal Credit

Step into Spring with automation

Step into Spring with automation

It seems a while ago but in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget 2024, there was a section focused on public service productivity, with services tasked to become more digitally inclusive, to explore artificial intelligence (AI) and to use automation to improve productivity. Although local authorities were not specifically mentioned in that part of the Budget, Ministers this week wrote to Chief Executives formally asking councils to produce productivity plans. Amidst some understandable groans, it remains the case that every forecaster is predicting continued pressure on council finances so, to many of us, this seems like déjà vu. Whoever forms a government after the next election will be looking to productivity as a means to increase capacity. As experts in Revenues and Benefits automation, we have a good understanding of how it improves productivity and increases capacity.

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Govtech Solutions Ltd team at the IRRV Annual Conference 2023

The need for automation is now, IRRV Annual Conference ’23 recap

Earlier this month we attended the IRRV Annual Conference and Exhibition 2023 in Telford. Although we support many, if not most of the IRRV expos across the UK, this is by far the largest in our industry. And judging by how busy our stand was, it appears that the majority of local authorities across England and Wales attended – we got to meet our Scottish peers at their own Conference last month.

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“A Time It Was, And What A Time It Was…”

A YEAR TO FEEL PROUD ABOUT 

Without a doubt, 2022 was a challenging year for the UK. The pandemic, that seemed to have lasted forever, was slowly coming to an end and there was hope that everything might return to normal. But unforeseen events, like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, had a shocking impact on the global economy and, consequently, on everyone's day-to-day life. Energy costs reached previously unheard-of heights and exacerbated inflation.

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There is a Council Tax collection storm coming. The time to prepare for it is now.

There is a Council Tax collection storm coming. The time to prepare for it is now.

Last January, after Christmas and New Year celebrations were curtailed again, we saw off the peak in Omicron infections without these translating into mass hospitalisations. Finally, we could hope for a gradual return to some sort of normality, including being able to fly off somewhere for a summer holiday. What a difference 6 months makes!

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Returning to the premiership: City of Wolverhampton Council has reinstated webCAPTURE and eCAPTURE

Returning to the premiership: City of Wolverhampton Council has reinstated webCAPTURE and eCAPTURE

We’re delighted to announce that, after a 4-year interlude, the City of Wolverhampton Council has chosen Govtech once again to deliver digital process automation for Council Tax and Benefits. In the intervening period, Wolverhampton separately helped Govtech initially to design, and was the first to deploy, Govtech’s Universal Credit Digital Service (UCDS). Now, in a decision which reverses the switch to a competitive offering, Wolverhampton will re-adopt the full suite of Govtech digital process automation services in Revenues & Benefits.

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Forming partnerships that last; latest customer news

Forming partnerships that last; latest customer news

Its always a busy year end so we’re delighted that our customers have taken time out from annual billing, and even more rebates, to renew or extend our digital process automation services. We’re fortunate to have a strong and loyal customer base, so we’d like to express our thanks to the following councils, who have once again chosen to remain a part of the Govtech family:

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Welcome to the webCAPTURE family; latest customer news

Welcome to the webCAPTURE family; latest customer news

It’s been an extremely busy couple of months here at Govtech and we’re delighted to welcome Nottingham City Council and Isle of Anglesey County Council to the webCAPTURE community of customers. We are equally delighted by so many Govtech customers choosing to renew their hosted digital process automation services recently; so here is our September '21 customer news round-up.

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Partnership

Ealing and Northampton Councils Extend UCDS

Ealing and Northampton Councils Extend UCDS

Ealing Council and Northampton BC have extended their contracts with Northgate Public Services for provision of Govtech’s Universal Credit Digital Service, each for a further 12 months. As the Covid-19 lockdown leads to a huge increase in the number of people in receipt of Universal Credit, UCDS will play an increasingly important role in ensuring that councils stay on top of a work stream that is beginning to rapidly increase in size.

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New service deployed

Kirklees MBC transforms productivity with UCDS

After an extensive period of working with Govtech to test and enhance its Universal Credit Digital Service (“UCDS”) Kirklees MBC has deployed the UCDS to great effect. UCDS supports Kirklees’ policy of reviewing entitlement to Council Tax Reduction only three times a year, unless there are any significant changes meanwhile.

Complementing its comprehensive filtering, matching and pre-assessment of LCTR Change Notifications received daily from the DWP, the most advanced configuration of UCDS has resulted in a 62% reduction in work items created in the back office system. Download the case study here.

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