Resources
Tackling local authority debt: a politician's view
Equifax commissioned research among 119 UK MPs to gain an insight into politicians' perceptions of the impact of public sector debt on services in their own constituencies and what measures they felt, if any, were appropriate to addressing the issue.
Brentwood Council
Brentwood Council had previously used an externally managed service for Single Person Discount reviews. Although a lot of data was provided, the mining of the data and getting useful information to make informed decisions still fell to the Council. So they were looking for a product - and a company - that would provide a solution that would enable Brentwood to manage their SPD cases and investigation work in-house.
Luton Borough Council: Collections
Luton Borough Council had already gone through some transformational changed. This had moved it from second from bottom in the league tables of England authorities for debt collection to 150th best performer (out of 353). However they wanted to improve further and were looking for a solution that would provide superior reports to improve its collections strategy.
Luton Borough Council: Single Person Discount
We worked together to identify and reduce the number of households wrongly claiming Single Person Discount. It's the single biggest discount that the Council offers, costing approximately £7 million a year. The aim was to achieve cost savings to be reinvested into the provision of public resources.
Rochford District Council
"This is saving us money - so far approximately £70k in unidentified income we should have been getting. This means time and resources are getting reallocated to better serve our borough."
Sefton Borough Council
Trading Standards at Sefton Borough Council has been working with Equifax for a few years and using the eTrail product to help with investigations. While happy with eTrail they were keen to move to Equifax Public Sector Gateway after hearing about the additional benefits it would bring. Their migration has enabled faster investigations, improved efficiencies and audit trails through the online system.
The London Borough of Lewisham
Tangible results with Equifax Public Sector Gateway. The London Borough of Lewisham has engaged Equifax to provide services which have shown the potential to save the Borough a projected £6.5m over the next three years.
Can’t pay or won’t pay
Melanie Hosker, Head of Public Sector Services talks about the burden of council tax debts on local budgets and how councils are striving to locate and identify debtors who can, but simply won’t, pay, whilst still ensuring they treat everyone fairly.
Financial Vulnerability
Richard Haymes is Head of Financial Difficulties at TDX Group. Here he discusses the difficulties facing vulnerable consumers – and the challenges they can pose to businesses.
Fraud in the public sector - the local government view
Mark Nicholson, Principal Consultant at Equifax, talked to Perspective about what local authorities are doing to crack down on fraud.
Once upon a time...
Communication specialists from Media First explain what we can learn from journalists when it comes to the power of storytelling in business.
Procurement fraud in the public sector: The case for implementation of robust controls
Procurement fraud is one of the biggest areas of fraud loss for both central and local government departments. Keeping on top of procurement processes and checks can be both time-consuming and resource-intensive.