Twelve million ‘hits’ in a week breaks Citizen Access annual billing record
During March, Citizen Access set a new record with over 12 million page views in a single week on our online revenues and benefits portal. With many visits coming after hours, and response times staying under half a second, it’s proving convenient and efficient time and again.
The busiest time for councils and their customers
After the storm of Annual Billing comes the deluge of activity when citizens react to their bills. For those still getting paper copies, it can mean a high volume of phone calls and emails to, arrange to pay by Direct Debit, apply for a discount or tell them you’ve moved. It’s resource-heavy work, and that’s without the print and post costs.
By making e-billing simple for council and citizen alike, Citizen Access takes the pressure off hard-pressed teams. From Monday 13 to Friday 17 March, we saw over 12 million page views. Many came from the 200,000+ people who accessed their bills online. With a saving of around £1 per bill (on print, enveloping and postage) that’s a saving of £200k in just one week and in just one area.
Making light work of complex transactions
That’s a big sum on its own, but Citizen Access does much more. By making every transaction easy, citizens can complete more of their life admin at times that work for them. And because it’s integrated with NEC Revenues & Benefits, this convenience generates no extra admin for the busy council teams. In fact, every transaction that can be completed online frees up more time to help those who need it.
For the London Borough of Hounslow, implementing Citizen Access for Revenues and Benefits led to 50% fewer phone calls, 45% fewer walk-ins and more than double the number of address changes completed online.
Here’s a snapshot of activity on Citizen Access in our record-breaking week: 
Extending the benefits of automation
As well as solutions for Revenues and Benefit transactions, there’s also specific Citizen Access solutions for:
- Landlords, which enables online access to tenants’ claim status, payments and notifications
- Discretionary Housing Payments, creating a simple application and award process
- Campaigns, to run Single Person Discount and Empty Property reviews efficiently
- Full case reviews, supporting the Housing Benefit Accuracy Award programme
- Student automation, for easy validation of student disregards, discounts and exemptions.
Want to learn more about NEC Revenues & Benefits? Get in touch via the form below:
