Project Overview
A UK metropolitan borough council with 180,000 residents, £84M Council Tax revenue per year, and £42M Housing ...
Technology Stack
Compliance & Standards
The Challenge
A UK metropolitan borough council with 180,000 residents, £84M Council Tax revenue per year, and £42M Housing Benefit expenditure per year needed to modernise their revenues and benefits digital platform — replacing Northgate Revenues (legacy CR&B system) with a modern cloud-native platform. GDS Service Standard (local government variant), UK GDPR, Universal Credit managed migration (Housing Benefit to Universal Credit — DWP data sharing), Council Tax legislation (Local Government Finance Act 1992), Housing Benefit regulations, and WCAG 2.1 AA were mandatory. Budget: £120,000.
Our Approach
Council Tax lifecycle
- property owner/occupier registration → liability assessment (full charge, single person discount 25%, empty property premium, student exemption, SMI — Severe Mental Impairment — exemption) → annual bill generation → payment (Direct Debit, online, PayPoint) → reminder / summons workflow (reminder: 14 days after missed payment
- summons: 7 days after reminder
- liability order: magistrates court).
Digital service
online Council Tax account (view bill, set up Direct Debit, apply for discount/exemption), GOV.UK Notify (bill notifications, reminders), and Valuation Office Agency (VOA) API (Council Tax band lookup by property address — UKVP reference).
Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Migration
Housing Benefit (HB): local authority-administered means-tested benefit for rent.
DWP Managed Migration
existing HB claimants migrated to Universal Credit (UC) by DWP — local authority must process final HB payment and close claim when UC migration notice received.
DWP data sharing
- ATLAS (Automated Transfer to Local Authorities System) — DWP sends UC migration data to local authority via ATLAS API.
- Council Tax Reduction (CTR): CTR replaces Council Tax Benefit (abolished 2013) — each council has its own CTR scheme (statutory minimum protection for pensioners, local scheme for working-age claimants).
Automated CTR assessment
income data from DWP ATLAS → CTR entitlement calculation → Council Tax bill adjustment.
Single Customer View
one record per resident linking Council Tax, Housing Benefit, CTR, Business Rates, and other council services.
Address matching
Royal Mail PAF (Postcode Address File) + UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) — every property in the UK has a UPRN.
Resident matching
- Name + DOB + address matching to prevent duplicate records.
- GDPR Article 5(1)(e): data must not be kept longer than necessary — single customer view retention schedule (active records retained whilst service obligation exists, inactive records deleted after 7 years — local government audit requirement).
GDS Local Government Assessment
GDS Service Standard applies to local government digital services funded by central government grants.
Assessment requirements
- 1user research with residents including vulnerable populations (benefits claimants — often vulnerable),
- 2accessible design (WCAG 2.1 AA — Council Tax digital service used by elderly residents, disabled residents),
- 3GOV.UK Design System components,
- 4GOV.UK Pay for online payment (PCI-DSS handled by HMRC/GOV.UK Pay — council's SAQ-A),
- 5GOV.UK Notify for communications. ClickMasters GDS evidence pack produced throughout build — not retrospectively compiled before assessment.
The Results
GDS assessment passed (Live).
Platform live at 22 weeks, £112,000 — under budget.
Council Tax digital accounts: 68,400 activated (38% of residents — target: 30%).
Direct Debit take-up: 72% (previously 58%).
Council Tax reminder letters: GOV.UK Notify (98% digital — 2% paper for residents without email).
Housing Benefit to UC migration: 100% automated ATLAS processing (3,400 claimants migrated — zero manual processing).
CTR automated assessment: 94.2% (5.8% require manual review).
WCAG 2.1 AA: zero non-compliances.
Resident satisfaction: 4.2/5.
“GDS Live assessment passed. 68,400 digital accounts — 38% resident adoption against 30% target. Direct Debit from 58% to 72%. Housing Benefit UC migration 100% automated — 3,400 claimants with zero manual processing. CTR automated 94.2%. Resident satisfaction 4.2. The DWP ATLAS integration was the critical technical path — no other local government digital supplier we spoke to had done it before. ClickMasters had done it." — Director of Revenues and Benefits, UK Metropolitan Borough Council (name withheld)”
Project Details
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