It was six years ago we launched our award-winning small business rates relief (SBRR) fraud detection solution – HUB. With over 70 Local Authorities currently using the solution around £8 million worth of relief has been reported as having been removed since its launch.
In actual fact we believe this figure to be much higher as not all cases identified by HUB and then verified by Council staff are necessarily reported back to Destin Solutions by the Local Authority.
How HUB works
HUB works by giving users access to a portal where all the latest consolidated and published business ratepayer data from Authorities across England is sorted, compared and analysed. Through a data matching exercise, Authorities can view at the click of a button where the system has flagged suspected instances of businesses operating in their region which may have businesses in other locations, potentially invalidating their small business rates relief claim. There is no IT support required from a Local Authorities perspective, users are just granted secure access to the system and can view the data which has already been pre-loaded for them.
Verifying SBRR claims as they come in
Additional features have been added to HUB following client feedback, including the ability to view a company’s status, whether it is active, dormant or dissolved. In the case of a dormant or dissolved company this helps prompt investigation in to whether there are any new business ratepayer details which need to be updated providing quicker turnaround on collections. It also facilitates the ability to verify claims as they come in to ensure they are indeed valid and no other business is operating in other geographies. Local Authorities have effectively made HUB part of their ‘business as usual’ in that before granting SBRR, checks are made on HUB to ensure that the business is not currently liable for business rates elsewhere, this stops relief being granted incorrectly in the first place.
Typical results being achieved by HUB
A report back from one large Metropolitan Borough Council in the North of England identified that they had been able to reclaim over £250,000 in relief awarded. Similarly Basildon & Brentwood Councils have identified over 242 suspected instances of fraud since implementing the HUB solution. Robert Manser, Head of Revenues & Benefits for the Shared Service commented that it was “a really great piece of technology and a useful tool to use to fight potential business rates fraud and error.”
Peterborough Council – Return on Investment from HUB
In addition feedback from clients at Peterborough Council indicate that the outcomes from using the HUB SBRR tool have been really good for them. They conducted a full review using the solution when it was first implemented and this resulted in £130,000 of SBRR being withdrawn. They are also using HUB on an ongoing basis to verify new applications as they come in, so far resulting in a further £13,000 of relief being refused. Based on their initial purchase of the solution they have already achieved a return on investment of a whopping 4,233%.
Over 40,000 cases of suspected SBRR fraud identified
Collectively HUB has identified 40,000 cases of suspected SBRR fraud across England since its launch, equating to around 126 cases per Local Authority. With SBRR granted primarily based on a simple self-declaration, it is inevitable that some fraud will be occurring in every part of the country. This is one of the only solutions that can give the necessary reassurance to the Council that their SBRR awards are as accurate as possible.
If you want to find out more about the potential amount of SBRR fraud occurring in your Local Authority, contact us now and we can provide a no obligation, quick summary of the suspected cases HUB has identified in your area. >
