Published date: 8 August 2016

Withdrawn opportunity - This means that the contract has been withdrawn early. This could be due to a change of circumstances.


Closing: 12 September 2016

Contract summary

Industry

  • Administration, defence and social security services - 75000000

  • Benefit services - 75310000

  • Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security - 79000000

    • Administrative social services - 85321000

Location of contract

London

Value of contract

£400,000 to £16,000,000

Procurement reference

TOWER001-DN176403-30615189

Published date

8 August 2016

Closing date

12 September 2016

Contract start date

1 January 2017

Contract end date

31 December 2020

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Restricted procedure

A two-stage procedure, where the first stage is used to select suppliers, who are then invited to bid in the second stage.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

No

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

Description

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 Brent
London Borough of Hackney
London Borough of Lambeth
London borough of Sutton
Royal Borough of Greenwich
London Borough of Waltham Forest
Medway Council
London Borough of Harrow

The Council is seeking expressions of interest for the provision of remote processing support services to
complete Housing and Council Tax Benefit claims when employed Council staff are already at capacity. The
contract will replace 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 which expires later this year.
The contract will commence in January 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.
The Council, and or some of the participating Councils may at some future date determine to also establish a
Joint Venture (JV), or other means by which the Framework may be managed for the mutual benefit of admitted
Council partners. No firm commitment is given to this option at this stage, and the determination to exercise the
JV or similar shall be in the sole discretion of the Council.

About the buyer

Contact name

Andrew Shorter

Address

Mulberry Place
London
E14 2BG
UK

Telephone

+44 2073644099

Email

procurement@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Website

http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk