Capita : launches solution to support local authority financial assessments

Capita has upgraded its market leading Advantage Revenues and Benefits software so that it now fully supports local authority residential and domiciliary care contribution assessments (known as Financial Assessments).

This latest functionality to be included within Advantage Revenues and Benefits has been designed jointly with local authority partners to streamline the financial assessment process.

Dealing with these assessments alongside calculations for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support will deliver savings and efficiencies and improve the accuracy of processing for local authorities by reducing duplication and manual data entry. Getting an assessment will also be less arduous for claimants entitled to multiple benefits due to the improved, joined-up approach the system offers.

As well as ongoing, day-to-day assessments processing, automated end-of-year uprating means charges are calculated and notified to customers automatically, at the right time, with no necessity for staff input or manual recalculation.

This huge decrease in administrative burden will allow authorities to absorb the management of financial assessments, currently a task for a dedicated team in many councils, into their existing benefits team. This will allow for staff reallocation or FTE savings that are increasingly demanded due to resource pressure.

The software includes a single record of household and income used across all assessments, inbuilt notification generation, and the use of existing and proven payment and overpayment functionalities. It features dedicated privileges to ensure users are unable to access information unless authorised, and customisable parameters which can be configured to local policy and rules.

The introduction of functionality to support financial assessments means Advantage Revenues and Benefits truly offers a single platform that local authorities can use to assess Housing Benefit, Discretionary Housing Payments, Council Tax Support, local welfare assessments, free school meals, clothing allowance, domiciliary care contributions and residential care contributions.

Not only does Advantage provide the opportunity for local authorities to work more efficiently than ever before but it will also provide an end to the frustrations claimants can encounter providing the same information to the same organisation multiple times for different assessments. We're pleased to already have a customer implementation of the solution underway and look forward to offering the service improvements and savings it promises to deliver across the breadth of our customer base.

Anthony Singleton

Managing director, Capita's Advantage range of solutions