Executive summary
Civil Servants are under huge pressure to significantly reduce departmental spend while improving citizen services. The challenge is made all the more difficult for compliance functions, spanning areas as diverse as tax, welfare, immigration, health, vetting and transport, which are facing increasing levels of non-compliance, fraud and error as government services go ‘online’. The National Fraud Authority estimate that the UK loses £38bn1 to fraud per annum across all sectors. Within this the Public Sector is estimated to be losing £21bn1 to fraud.
Reducing fraud and cutting costs in the online world: the compliance challenge
In today’s world of complex policy, legislation and information systems, filing tax returns, applying for benefits or visas, or completing any of the myriad of possible transactions with the Government can be a minefield. Customers or officials can make mistakes. Individuals or organised criminal gangs can cheat the system. This combination of error and fraud is eating away at outcomes and significantly increasing the costs of administration.
The Coalition Government has made it their top priority to reduce the UK’s deficit. Public sector organisations are therefore under significant pressure to strengthen their compliance operations while simultaneously making them more cost-efficient. However, they find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place: how can they meet and exceed compliance targets when capacity is constrained and investment purse-strings are drawn tight? And how can they reduce the interval between introducing new compliance initiatives and demonstrating a return?
The Coalition Government has made it their top priority to reduce the UK’s deficit. Public sector organisations are therefore under significant pressure to strengthen their compliance operations while simultaneously making them more cost-efficient. However, they find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place: how can they meet and exceed compliance targets when capacity is constrained and investment purse-strings are drawn tight? And how can they reduce the interval between introducing new compliance initiatives and demonstrating a return?
Achieving ‘better for less’ with an intelligence-led approach
Detica’s Compliance Assurance Service (CAS) uses a combination of business services and advanced data analytics to transform the efficiency and effectiveness of compliance operations. Provided as an ‘on-demand’ business service, CAS enables public sector organisations to augment their existing compliance capacity, on a ‘payment-by-results’ basis and meet their strategic objectives in an efficient and affordable manner.
Increased effectiveness – reduces fraudulent, erroneous claims and payments; improves yield and citizen experience.
Increased efficiency – reduces the time and effort needed to assess risk and conduct investigations into fraud; reduces time and effort needed to process compliant submissions; reduces case volume.
Increased speed – identifies sophisticated frauds within weeks of launch and subsequently starts to provide actionable intelligence to help prevent further fraud and error.
In its first year of operation, a Detica CAS approach, called ‘Connect’, helped HMRC to improve personal tax and VAT yield by £1bn. HMRC now plan to extend 'Connect' into a real-time fraud prevention service which will transform HMRC’s ability to prevent tax fraud in real-time at the point of claim.
With Detica’s CAS, substantial impacts to both outcomes and operating efficiencies are possible, without the need for upfront investment by departments.
