Bury Council introduces a major change to the way people claim Housing and Council Tax Benefit

Date published: 01 December 2008

From the 1 December Bury?s Benefits Section will be one of just eighteen local
authorities to join the Department for Work and Pensions funded national pilot
of Voice Risk Analysis Technology.

The technology has already been piloted in seven other local authorities for
over a year and now the project is expanding. Voice Risk Analysis technology
helps to identify changes in people's voices which may in turn highlight claim
details which need further investigation as there could be a risk of incorrect
information being provided or even of potential fraud.

Results from the initial pilot found the technology to be of great benefit both
financially to local authorities and also improved the customer experience of
the benefits service.

The current system places the onus of providing documentary proof of their
circumstances (income, savings, rent, household members) on the customers.
However, the new technology will help identify those customers seen as a lower
risk who will then benefit from a reduced level of checks. The system will flag
up higher risk cases and this will enable staff from the Benefits Service to
have a more detailed look at these cases before making a decision.

The technology will not replace existing methods and customers will still be
able to make applications on line or face to face. The intention of making
claims via Voice Risk Analysis is to reduce the amount of evidence the majority
of customers need to produce.

Councillor Peter Redstone, Executive Member for Resource, said: ?The great
thing about this technology is that it does not take the decision away from the
member of staff as they still have the final say over the decision. People have
told us that benefit fraud is a big concern and hopefully this new system will
help identify cases of higher risk so they can be looked at in more detail. As
the majority of cases are of low risk this new system will help improve
efficiency and ensure high customer service.