The Council began its relationship with allpay in June 2017, implementing its Fully Managed Direct Debit system, allowing customers to make scheduled payments for their housing rent. The system was implemented to replace the Council’s existing in-house module, with the any day, any frequency feature providing greater flexibility for tenants to make their payments.
With Universal Credit being rolled-out across the region, the new system enabled housing tenants to set-up their collection for the day they receive their benefit payment. Since going live with the new service, the Council has improved its collection rates and staff have found it easier to manage the process with the paperless system making set-ups easier and more flexible.
As part of the service, allpay collects more than £11.6 million for the Council, processing 67,000 Direct Debit transactions per annum.
Joanne Figg – Income Manager for the Council, said:
“Previously at Guildford Borough Council we managed the Direct Debit process through our Orchard Housing system, processing 3 monthly dates and a weekly Direct Debit. Through demand from customers and the impending introduction of Universal Credit in the region, we wanted to offer our customers more choice and flexibility to pay their rent. We looked at originally operating this in house, but unfortunately following analysis, it would have been too costly compared to allpay’s model. Using allpay has allowed us to offer our customers Direct Debits on an any day, any frequency basis. The take up of this by our existing customers has been greatly received, with an increase of take-up set to continue following the full roll-out of Universal Credit.”
