Decision details

Paragraph 24.1 (b)(i) of the Contract Procedure Rules provides that a contract may be varied or changed without re-advertisement if it can be shown that the change "requires additional works, services or supplies that have become necessary and where a change of supplier would not be practicable (for economic, technical or interoperability reasons) or involve substantial inconvenience/duplication of costs" provided that "the value of such a change does not exceed 50% of the original contract price". Such modification is also allowed by regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 which also requires that, where the Council proceeds with this contract variation, a modification notice be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Revenues and Benefits already use Civica Open revenues modules to administer Council Tax, Business Rates, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction. All these modules are run off a central core database.
The new module needed to administer a Council Tax Reduction 'banded scheme' would be addition to the current modules running off the core database already in existence. There is no third party product that could stand alone and that would integrate with the current modules.
Our Revenues and Benefits team and ICT support colleagues are already familiar with the current Openrevenues modules that we use and procuring a new system would be detrimental to the service we currently provide and be a significant cost to the authority.
Information: When Council Tax Benefit was abolished from April 2013, it was replaced with a discount known as Council Tax Reduction to help working age people on low incomes pay their Council Tax.
'Full Service' Universal Credit was introduced to Devon during 2018 and in the North Devon Council area on the 4 July 2018. Since the rollout of Universal Credit, Council
Tax Reduction administration has become increasingly difficult. This is because Universal Credit is highly reactive to change, and Local Authorities typically receive notifications from the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in income every month for each customer. These changes are often insignificant (e.g. £1 variation in earned income) but as Council Tax Reduction schemes are fully means tested even a trivial change requires reassessment, triggering an amended Council Tax bill and rescheduling of the instalment profile. As a result, some households are issued with many bills and a number of changed instalments each year. This can make it difficult for taxpayers to budget or even to understand what is due.
The current Council Tax Reduction scheme is complex and out of date and is not effective with the introduction and roll out of Universal Credit. The Government continues to reduce the funding for the scheme so we're aiming for a new scheme that is fairer, simpler and ultimately reduces administration costs.
We are therefore planning to introduce an 'income grid scheme', which will cut down on administration costs and make the claiming process simpler and easier to understand. In order to administer such a scheme we require a new software package/module. This is a new requirement since entering into our current contract in 2017.

Financial Implications: (NOTE: Please state if there are any financial implications. If so, state if there are sufficient funds within the agreed budget. If there are not sufficient funds, please state how the decision will be financed)
Module cost: £37,500
License fee: 20 0/0 of £37,500 = £7,500 P/A
April 20 - March 21 = £7,500
April 21 to March 22 = £7,500
April 22 —September 22 - £3750 (end of contract) Total cost £56,250.
Funds have been allocated by Head of Resources

In accordance with paragraph 24 of the Contract Procedure Rules (Part 4 of the Constitution); consent to the variation of the Civica Openrevenues contract dated 28 September 2017 without re-advertisement.

The alternative would be to procure a new Revenues and Benefits system, the costs of which would be far in excess of the current proposal. The costs would not only include the new software but also; the procurement and implementation of a new system as well as staff training and would need major input from our ICT department.