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Housing Benefit Recovery System (HBRS)Now with extended functionality to manage County Court Judgments
HBRS has been developed to promote best practice in accordance with key performance standards. A flexible case management plug-in for modern Housing Benefits and Debtors Systems, HBRS reduces costs and balances work and capacity issues. Balancing Recovery with Social ResponsibilityThe Housing Benefit Recovery System (HBRS) developed by TCS Computer Services Limited is a solution for tracking the recovery of overpaid housing benefit. 
Housing Benefit Recovery System HBRS has been used by Greenwich Council for the past eight years to recover overpaid housing benefit. It is a ’Best Practice’ system developed with the support of money from the Performance Standards Fund provided by the Department for Work and Pensions system (DWP). Proven return on investment
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HBRS is an effective management tool created by TCS and
Greenwich
Council. It is designed to support small teams by enabling
them to cope
quickly and effectively with high volumes of complex
processes in the
recovery of housing benefit overpayments.
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Track groups of invoices and maintain a checklist of actions and outcomes |
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View a checklist to enforce both process and compliance with rules for chasing debt |
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See statistical reports on the performance of both individual Recovery Officers and the Department as a whole |
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Manage County Court Judgments (CCJ) and improve success rate |
HBRS is an add-on solution that can interface with many modern Housing Benefits and Debtors Systems. During the development of the system it benefited from joint investment from Greenwich Council and the Department for Work and Pensions Performance Standards Fund as part of its drive to promote best practice.
Developed in partnership with Greenwich Council
HBRS is the result of many years of benefit recovery experience by the Greenwich Council recovery team whose needs and ideas have governed HBRS software design from the start. The system and its reporting functionality have benefited from the innovative thinking and practical application of their users and management team.
The key benefits of HBRS
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It supports staff dealing with a high volume of cases in an efficient way |
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It improves staff performance to comply with Key Performance Standards and enables them to sustain that improvement |
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Management are able to monitor recovery officer performance |
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Each morning the team members are presented with an up-to-date list of outstanding invoices |
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The ’sweeper facility’ in the system means that tasks do not get lost by falling ‘out of sight’ |
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Management time is saved by an automatic allocation of work across the recovery team including those working full time from home and eases organising cover for staff absence |
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Highlights open benefit cases to help speed clawback set up |
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Automatic generation of the full documentation associated with applications for County Court Judgments |
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A checklist of actions and outcomes performed can be recorded against each invoice during the officer’s attempt to recover debt |
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A search facility to highlight and prioritise groups of cases requiring similar action without the need for paper reports |
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Highlights both cases involving fraud and admin penalties |
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Management are able to quickly analyse the effectiveness of different types of recovery actions |
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Does away with the need for using custom-built Excel spreadsheets to help manage the recovery process |
Revenue earnings – the key
potential future benefit of HBRS
In the current economic climate benefit caseloads have increased for many Local Authorities and as the economy improves there is likely to be a further increase with recovery cases that require prompt attention. HBRS will help users to manage this high volume of cases in an efficient way. The system has an excellent track record in assisting management to deal with peak workloads without the need to increase staff. This in turn will support local authorities in the swift recovery of overpayments with the commensurate revenue earnings.
The flexible structure of HBRS
HBRS is a desktop software application that can be virtualised using technologies such as Microsoft App– V for ease of distribution. The application is Microsoft SQL Server based and has been built using mainstream Microsoft .NET development tools and Crystal Reports. HBRS consists of four modules:
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Different views of the outstanding invoices |
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A checklist for each invoice |
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County Court Judgements |
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Customisable Statistical Reports |
The application can be configured to take data from many Housing Benefits and Debtors Systems.
Technical requirements
HBRS is a SQL Server 2008 based system (also works on SQL Server 2000 and 2005) with a C#.Net framework 2.0 front end and reporting published via Crystal Enterprise. It also requires Word 2003 (or later version).
HBRS is a desktop software application that can be Virtualised using technologies such as Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualisation for ease of distribution. The application is Microsoft SQL Server based and has been built using mainstream Microsoft .NET development tools and Crystal reports.
The application can be configured to take data from any Housing Benefits System and post transactions to any Debtors System.
Over the last two years the application has been tried & tested under a heavy day-to-day workload. The user interface has been enhanced for user friendliness and flexibility for a team of users.
Currently, the application is in the process of being submitted to VeriTest (the official Microsoft Testing Partner) for the ISV Platform Test for Applications. This test ensures that HBRS meets strict criteria for stability under Microsoft operating environments and ensures that the end-user receives a highly satisfactory experience when installing and using the application. Results are expected by the end of 2008.
"Greenwich Council commissioned TCS Computer Services to develop a Housing Benefit Overpayment Recovery System (HBRS) to help our recovery team deal with a large increase in volume that had created a backlog of outstanding debt.
"Within a year all the overdue debt was invoiced and an increase in overpayment recovery was recorded without extra staff.
"This increased the recovery revenue for the Council and further cost savings were achieved in the processing of the work load."
Sean Foulds, Head of Benefits – London Borough of Greenwich.
During the development of the system it benefited from joint investment by Greenwich and the Department for Work and Pensions Performance Standards Fund as part of its drive to promote best practice. The system has been further developed into its fourth version (HBRS) which is a case management plug-in for modern Housing Benefits and Debtors Systems. The base product is flexible so can be adapted to meet the specific needs of any individual Council.
TCS has 25 years’ experience working with local government in the development of dedicated departmental systems.
TCS is an independent Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Software House specialising in Management Information Systems (MIS), Business Intelligence (BI), Reporting Solutions and Database Administration and support.
We also create integrations for packaged software, and bespoke application modules to precisely meet the needs of our customers across nationally recognised, wellestablished, public sector and professional service businesses.
If you are interested to find out more about HBRS and how it is being used by local Councils to manage £M of overpaid housing benefit, please contact us and ask for Rodney Gent.
Achieve your goals
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Site wide licence fees with annual support and package enhancements agreement |
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Package purchase or rental alternatives |
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Bespoke enhancements to meet specific and varied departmental needs |
For further information, technical specification and system feature data, and to arrange a demonstration, please contact the sales team at TCS on:
Tel: +44 (0) 1322 559 840
Email: sales@tcscs.co.uk
