Introduction
As a part of a package of support to help households with rising energy bills, the government
is providing a 150 non-repayable Council Tax Rebate payment for all households that are
liable for Council Tax in Bands A-D in England. For households in Bands A-D, who do not pay
by Direct Debit, the council needs to provide a mechanism for them to apply for this
payment.
Responding rapidly to the challenge facing councils, IEG4 has developed a unique, cloudhosted and fully automated solution, which will enable all applications to be checked for
eligibility and paid in an automated manner.
This high level of automation is key given that the average number of households affected,
and therefore expected is applications, per council is ~20,000. This document will outline:
- Features and Benefits
- Prerequisites/Implementation Steps
- Data in use
- Product form functionality
- Data export capabilities (BACS etc.)
- Integrations pricing information
Features and Benefits
The solution comes with the following key features and benefits:
| Features | Benefits |
| Simple to complete cloud-hosted three stage online form | Reduced contact as a result of the ease of the process |
| In-built checks for eligibility and fraud prevention | Reduced administration handling ineligible applications |
| Fully automated application process | Massively reduced costs as there is no checking/ ekeying |
| BACS and data return export capabilities | Quickly and easily make payments |
| Automated Email Receipts | Reduced contacts from customers chasing payments |
| Secure Microsoft Infrastructure | Quick and simple implementation and security and compliance are built in |
| Cyber Essential Plus accredited team | Data protection and security have been independently checked robustly to the highest level of accreditation level for Cyber Essentials |
Prerequisites / implementation steps
The following are the prerequisites/implementation steps for the EBR service:
| Pre-req/ | Step Owner |
| Azure instance (where non-customer) | IEG4 |
| IEG4 eGovHub instance | IEG4 |
| IEG4 EBR application form | IEG4 |
| Council Branding applied | IEG4 |
| BACS export capability | IEG4 |
| Data export capability | IEG4 |
| Loqate Bank Validation check set up - | count pr council IEG4 |
| Experian ID check set up - count per council | IEG4 |
| PropertyData check set up - count per council | IEG4 |
| Ordnance Survey API Key | Council to provide |
| Limit Ordnance Survey Results to the Council in question | IEG4 |
| Email from address | Council to provide |
| Error/warning/information messages | Council to provide |
Data in use
The following data is involved in the processes:
| Data | Where is it captured? | Why |
| Title | Form ID | Verification |
| First name | Form ID | Verification |
| Surname | Form ID | Verification |
| Date of Birth | Form ID | Verification |
| Mobile Phone number | Form To help with ID | Verification (Phone contract) |
| Email address | Form | Send a receipt |
| Address | Form ID | Verification |
| UPRN | Ordnance Survey API | To determine if a prior award has been made |
| Sort Code | Form | To validate the bank account |
| Bank account number | Form | To validate the bank account |
| Bank account name | Form ID | Verification |
| Bank account confirmation | Loqate | Bankerification API |
| Bank Account Verification / Fraud prevention | Consent to checks Form GDPR Compliance | Confirmation of not a DD payer Form Fraud prevention |
| Council Tax Band | PropertyData API | Eligibility Confirmation |
| ID Verification Decision | Experian ID API ID | Verification |
| ID Verification Score | Experian ID API ID | Verification |
| ID Verification Decision Reason | Experian ID API ID | Verification |
| Data | Where is it captured? | Why |
| ID Verification - | Matched Data Name Experian ID API ID | Verification |
This will be the source to which it matched from:
Source
- CAPS / ECAPS
- Citizen Card
- Consolidated Debt
- Credit / Store Cards
- Current Accounts
- Finance
- Insurance Services
- Leisure Finance
- Mail Order
- Media Services & Communications
- Mortgage
- ONS
- Payment Protection
- Public Information (All)
- Public Information (Satisfied)
- Rental / Leasing
- Unsecured Loan
- Utilities
- Voters Roll
Product form functionality
The following three pages and questions to be asked, which are all mandatory.
Page One - Address Selection
This first page for step one has a single question asking for their postcode. Upon pressing go
we will call the Ordnance Survey API1 to retrieve a list of addresses to select. The Ordnance
Survey API results will be set to be limited to the council in question.
When the address has been selected we will then call the PropertyData Council Tax API2 to
check that the band is between A and D.
If it is not we will present an error, which should be a customisable resource, stating that the
property is ineligible as it is not in bands A-D
Page Two - Personal Details
This second page is to capture who they are. All questions are mandatory.
Page Three - Bank Details
The final page captures their bank details, their consent to carry out the checks and
confirmation that they do not pay by Direct Debit
Upon pressing submit we will:
1) Check their bank details (this is an existing API Call)
- If invalid we will revert back and tell them to re-enter their bank details as they are
invalid
- If they are valid we will continue to the next step. This is important we do this first as
we will pass the bank details to the identity checking service.
2) Check their identity3
- If invalid we will present a message (customisable resource) telling them what to do i.e.
contact the council on 016100000000 or ebr@council.gov.uk etc.
- If valid then the form will submit successfully and we will log the details of the
application ready for BACS payment etc.
3) Send an email to the applicant letting them know they're application was successful and a
payment will be made in x days
1. BACS File Export
We need to provide the means via a simple (BUT SECURE) mechanism to create a BACS file
for a date range. I.e. officer enters from and to date and the file is presented/saved
somewhere.
Like this:
1111118765432109920555800980145000000000006000IEG4 IEG4 1500974965 Jerry Maguire
2222221234567809920555800980145000000000012000IEG4 IEG4 1500974965 Renee Zellewegger3333330987654301720555800980145 00000018000SAPBACS000129 6927 CONTRA YOUR COUNCIL
2. Data Export
We need to provide the means via a simple (BUT SECURE) mechanism to export/download a
delimited extract of the claims made. Minimum headers would be:
Header Mandatory?
Title Y
First Name Y
Surname Y
Date of Birth Y
Email Y
Mobile Number Y
Address Y
UPRN Y
Amount (Will always be £150 but will make it easy to total in Excel) Y
ID Check Decision Y
ID Check Score Y
ID Check Decision Reason Y
ID Check Match 1 - Name N
ID Check Match 1 - Value N
ID Check Match 2 - Name N
ID Check Match 2 - Value N
ID Check Match 3 - Name N
ID Check Match 3 - Value N
ID Check Match 4 - Name N
ID Check Match 4 - Value N