Oxford City Council has agreed a 10-year contract with Civica to use its OPENRevenues platform for its revenues and benefits operations.
It will be accompanied by a new self-service portal for the council’s customers, on which they will be able to access their information and updates on claims.
The company said the platform should help Oxford speed up case resolutions through improved workflow management.
Councillor Nigel Chapman, the council’s cabinet member for customer focused services, said: “Operating an efficient and effective and modern revenue and benefits system is crucial, and never more so than during these difficult times.
“Oxford City Council is looking forward to working with Civica to further improve the services we provide for our residents and businesses as well as improving staff efficiency by removing time consuming tasks.”
Oxford’s revenues and benefits contact centre team received more than 56,000 calls in 2019-20, with a caseload of almost 15,000. During that period, the department paid out an estimated £42 million in housing benefit and £11.9 million as part of the council tax reduction scheme, while collecting £96 million in council tax and £108 million in non-domestic rates.
Image by Kurtis Garbutt, CC BY 2.0
