R5007 Welfare Processing Resilience Framework

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets undertakes this procurement on behalf of itself, and with the expressed interest for future admission, as necessary by each of the named London Borough Councils as follows:
London Borough of Harrow
London Borough of Brent
London Borough of Hackney
London Borough of Lambeth
London borough of Sutton
Royal Borough of Greenwich
London Borough of Waltham Forest
Medway Council

The Council is seeking expressions of interest to set up a framework for the provision of remote processing support services to complete Housing and Council Tax Reduction claims when employed Council staff are at capacity. It is intended to appoint a multi supplier Framework of no less than three suppliers. The contract replaces reliance upon specialist temporary staff, and will enable timely completion of claims processing. The contract is open to other Local Authorities. This contract will replace the Council's existing contract for offsite Resilience services.

The contract will commence in June 2017. The Contract period is 2 years with an option to extend for a further 2 years by yearly increments.

The Council currently manages a highly effective Housing Benefit service which manages the claims processing function. The resilience contract is a development of this service to deal with variable workloads in the most cost effective way possible. Processing services under the contract will meet the standards of service which the Council will prescribe, through methods including the determination of a detailed Service Specification.

The key requirements of the contract are:
- Processing agreed workloads of claims for Council Tax and Housing Benefits; for Council Tax Support or
Council Tax Reduction; for other local welfare payments including free School Meals, and Local Authority
educational grants; Local Authority social care calculations; determinations in respect of Social Fund Payments
or similar; and determinations in respect of any other means tested benefit calculations which may be the
responsibility of the Council and its partners;
- Processing of claims to pre-agreed standards, both in terms of the quality, and the speed of processing;
- In agreement with the successful supplier, the completion of such other additional workloads as may be
required; and
-In agreement with the successful supplier by any joining Council to the Framework such Revenue processing services as may be required.