IRRV Alert August 4 2008
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Government Connect - HB Projects
Projects
Housing and Council Tax Benefit Administration
The administration of housing and council tax benefits is undergoing a quiet, but significant transformation providing benefits to the citizen and local and central government. Collectively, the changes outlined below represent an immense opportunity for local authorities; processes can be made to operate faster, more efficiently and more securely. These opportunities are wholly dependent on secure and resilient IT infrastructure. Government Connect provides the required capability, will soon be universally available and is excellent value for money, funded by government for the SR2007 period.
Customer Information Service (CIS)
The Customer Information Service (CIS) is used by 22,000 local authority staff to provide online benefits eligibility checking and has recently been enhanced to provide access to HMRC tax credit data. As the data scope, scale of usage and business criticality of CIS increases then security and service availability become even greater concerns. The availability of CIS over the internet is a risk reluctantly accepted, but as Government Connect is now available the less secure methods of access will be prohibited as of 1st April 2009.
In and Out of Work
Six local authorities are piloting the use of electronic forms to streamline communications between DWP, HMRC and local authorities as people move in and out of work. A national rollout of the new “In and Out of Work” processes is expected to begin in 2008. These new processes and the associated efficiency gains will be available only through Government Connect.
Electronic LAIDs and LACIs
DWP is changing its systems so that Local Authority Input Documents (LAID’S) and Local Authority Claim Information (LACI’s) can be provided to authorities as PDF and XML files thereby removing the need for paper communications and duplicated data entry. This electronic data, which will result in better service and greater efficiency will only be available through Government Connect.
Joint Working Partnerships
The Pensions Service, Job Centre Plus, HMRC and Local Authorities are increasingly working as a partnership to combat fraud and to provide better services. Government Connect is creating a trusted relationships across government departments meaning that sensitive data can be shared by e-mail and applications hosted by all Departments are accessible from a single local authority desktop. Government connect is creating a community of trust spanning not just central governments, but for the first the wider public sector.
Better securing bulk data exchange
A reasonably secure bulk data exchange system (PGP) has recently been provided by DWP to local authorities to facilitate the exchange of housing and council tax benefits data. Whilst more secure than unencrypted communications this tactical initiative has limited performance and is not viable in the long term. Government Connect will deliver and roll out a trusted secure long term solution. In accordance with DWP policy the PGP service will be ceased by March 2009.