Simple Payment Plan

Contract summary

Industry

• Collection agency services - 79940000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£42,000,000

Procurement reference

tender_296470/1352653

Published date

8 May 2024

Closing date

11 March 2022

Closing time

11am

Contract start date

19 April 2024

Contract end date

18 April 2030

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Competitive procedure with negotiation (above threshold)

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

---

Description

Provision of administration services for the "Simple Payment Plan".

The aim of the Simple Payment Plan is to provide a payment scheme for a selected group of customers that is simple, affordable and flexible.

To deliver against these key features, the Simple Payment Plan has been designed to:-

- target low income households to help increase revenue income and reduce both first time prosecutions and repeat offending;

- allow customers to spread their payments over the 12 month term of their licence, i.e. £159/12;

- run for a term of 4 years, with the option to extend on two occasions of one year each.

The Service Provider will be required to manage the accounts of customers on the scheme end-to-end. Specifically, Service Providers will be required to offer the following services:

i. collecting the licence fee, according to the regulations and as set out in any individual customer payment plans (including arrears management, payment processing and reconciliation services);

ii. campaign management services;

iii. fulfilment services;

iv. inbound and outbound customer communications services (including call centre facilities);

v. technology services;

vi. data management; and

vii. analytics

Services out of scope: Applicants should note that the following services are not proposed as in scope for the Service Provider:

i. field services;

ii. PR and stakeholder communications; and

iii. customer recruitment

The main objective of SPP is to ensure appropriate levels of support are provided to eligible customers, with particular focus on individuals who are willing to pay, but who are facing financial difficulty.

Critical Success Factors of the Simple Payment Plan:-

- Improved customer satisfaction;

- Positive impact on evasion and/or improvement in rate of licence purchase following prosecution statement (from TV Licensing Administrator);

- Improving Customer retention and revenue rates;

- Reducing the number of Customers that fail to pay anything towards their licence - referred to as Leavers Never Paid (LNP);

- Promoting Customers renewing their licences;

- Facilitating Customers managing their payment account digitally end to end.

The total estimated cost of the contract is £42m over the maximum 6 year term. This is based on the assumption of on-boarding 18k new customers each month. It is expected from the service provider to drive the increase of the number of customer onboarded and retained on the scheme to attain the estimated cost. Please note that cost increase is driven by a projected increase in customer numbers, and therefore the estimated cost of the contract may rise above £42m during the life of the contract.

The initial term of the contract is for a period of 48 months. The contract may be extended on two occasions by up to 12 months on each occasion, meaning the maximum potential term is 6 years in total.

---

More information

Previous notice about this procurement

Simple Payment Plan

• Opportunity
• Published 10 February 2022

---

Award information

Awarded date

19 April 2024

Contract start date

19 April 2024

Contract end date

18 April 2030

Total value of contract

£42,000,000

This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.

Wescot Credit Services Limited

---

About the buyer

Contact name

Jonathan Palfreeman

Address

Broadcasting House, Portland Place
London
W1A 1AA
England

Email

jonathan.palfreeman@bbc.co.uk