Council Tax

Collecting more for less

• Arrangements Manager

  

  Capita’s Arrangements Manager solution is designed to simplify the process of making special arrangements for taxpayers whilst conforming to your local recovery policy.

  Our research shows that special payment arrangements are increasing year by year, with a high percentage never completing.  This solution speeds up the process of creating arrangements whilst identifying those taxpayers who repeatedly fail to fulfil their arrangements.

  Arrangements Manager online with Connect provides your taxpayers with 24/7 access to propose their own payment arrangements.  An arrangement submitted online is accepted or referred for approval in accordance with your back office configuration.

• Bailiff Interface

  

  Capita Revenues Bailiff Interface lets you communicate electronically with bailiffs. It dramatically reduces time spent on manual data entry, whilst improving accuracy and ensuring that both bailiff and authority systems are up to date.

   

  Bailiffs receive electronic files containing all the information required to process a case, including debtor names, outstanding balance and address. They can use these files to update their own debt management system. Amendments to cases, such as a change in outstanding balance or address, can also be transferred in this way. Details of work completed may also be returned electronically and automatically processed by your systems, with the next appropriate recovery stage selected by default.

• Building Works

  

  With ambitious government targets for the construction of new housing and many home owners extending their properties, the demands of monitoring new builds are rising for local authorities. Our Building Works module helps streamline existing processes to minimise overheads.

   

  Mobile functionality allows visiting officers to record the progress of new builds as standard, while the integrated module records and manages the database. This eliminates expensive paper processes and increases the accuracy of data, while automatically generating efficient visiting schedules. Upon completion of works, properties are quickly transferred to homes ready for billing.

• Change of Address

  

  Processing changes of address can use considerable resources; this is a key area for improving efficiency. Capita Council Tax receives data electronically, which saves time and ensures greater accuracy. It integrates with a wide range of sources, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems, housing association systems, Capita Self-Service, mobile devices and www.iammoving.com.

   

  When customers change their own address details online, you can also encourage them to sign up for direct debit payment, eBilling and Capita Self-Service, leading to further cost savings for you.

• CRM integration

  

  Capita’s Integration Portal helps you improve customer service, reduce avoidable contact and eliminate duplication between front and back offices. Your front office staff can handle more queries by accessing and updating real-time citizen, account and claim information contained within the Capita Revenues and Benefits suite via their CRM system.

   

  Queries are resolved faster, improving customer services, while calls to expensive back office staff are reduced and performance against local government performance indicator "NI14: avoidable contact" is improved.  Front office staff use a web-based interface specifically designed for non- professionals, which can be plugged into any major CRM system for quick deployment with minimal training requirements.

• e-Billing

  

  You can reduce the cost of billing operations and your environmental impact with our e-Billing solution. This provides an online sign-up facility, offering customers choice and encouraging them to self serve. Instead of a costly paper bill, customers receive a link to a secure website. This not only keeps their data secure, but further encourages them to use self-service applications, leading to further cost savings.

   

  e-Billing is also integrated with our Change of Address Web form. Customers who notify you online that they are moving into the area are encouraged to sign up for e-Billing as part of the process. This means some may never be sent a paper bill, maximising potential savings.

• Local Land and Property Integration

  

  Our Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) Integration can help you build a single view of your properties, improving cross-departmental communication and helping to ensure complete and accurate billing. The software ensures that all properties in the LLPG are also in your revenues system, ensuring that they are billed.

   

  Any properties missing from the revenues system are identified, while new properties are included for billing as soon as possible. This improves both revenues and cash flow. Properties are referred to by their UPRN, improving communication and reducing errors, both between internal departments and external organisations. Administrative overheads are reduced, saving time and resources.

   

   

• Mobile

  

  Implementing Capita Revenues and Benefits Mobile solution offers you substantial efficiency savings by eliminating duplication and giving access to data both on and offline. The data needed for council tax inspections can be downloaded to a tablet PC, minimising visit preparation time. It also allows updated data to be uploaded directly to the system, eliminating manual keying and consequent errors.

   

  Officers can view the details held about a property on a mobile device, and then record the result of a revenues inspection, process a change of address in the field and record the progress of new builds and relevant building works (e.g. extensions).

• Process and Performance Manager

  

  Our Process and Performance Manager (PPM) application improves the performance of your Revenues and Benefits team by guiding users through work processes in a consistent and efficient way. The software can also assist the user by opening relevant screens and guiding your staff accurately through tasks.

   

  In addition, Capita’s Process and Performance Manager can monitor staff performance, identifying any that fall below the benchmark for additional training. PPM helps ensure that processes are completed correctly, avoiding costly problems.  It can also assist with training new staff and monitoring the performance of contractors and homeworkers.

• Recovery Targeting and Recoverview

  

  Maintaining efficient and effective recovery is a key element of the council tax recovery officer's role.

  Recovery targeting (RISC) provides the means to quickly and easily categorise council tax debtors, separating those who have missed one payment from those who have a history of failing to pay on time. Recovery action can be more swiftly taken against the recurrent debtors, with a different reminder letter from those who have just missed an odd payment.

  Furthermore, Recoverview provides your recovery staff with a single view of all recovery history on an account, together with powerful functionality to allow multiple recovery stages to be withdrawn in one simple, single process.

• Self-Service

  

  Capita Council Tax Self-Service gives citizens online access to their council tax account at any time, reducing the burden on your contact centres and front office staff.

   

  This software solution can also receive information: customers can input a change of address or set up direct debit payments. Self-service validates the information and passes it into Capita Revenues and Benefits suite without the need to manually key in the data, increasing speed and accuracy of information flow.

• Valuation Office Agency Integration

  

  Our VOA Integration solution enables updated council tax schedules to be uploaded directly into your revenues system, halving the time taken to process schedules and eliminating problems caused manual data inputting. You can provide a faster service, resulting in improved customer satisfaction.

   

  Reconciliation ensures that properties are billed correctly, leading to fewer appeals and enquiries which cause a significant overhead. Bills are distributed faster, with fewer backdated bills that customers may have difficulty paying. Reconciliation and update schedules ensure that the correct bands are applied to all properties.