Simple Payment Plan

Concepts

• collection agency
• simple payment plan
• aim of the simple payment plan
• individual customer payment plans
• payment scheme
• accurate payment data
• provision of administration services
• selected group of customers
• tv licensing administrator
• month term of their licence

Location

United Kingdom:

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.

Total Quantity or Scope

The Service Provider will be required to collect the licence fee from customers on the Simple Payment Plan via a range of payment methods and channels., and be responsible for:- i. Issuing licences and payment plans to recruited customers on the scheme; ii. Providing and managing various customer payment methods, as outlined in the table above; iii. Collecting the licence fee from customers via a variety of payment channels, including at a minimum: a contact centre; online, interactive voice response (IVR) and mobile applications; iv. Identifying and, where appropriate, introducing new customer payment channels, in line with best practice within the market place and developments in technology; v. Processing Simple Payment Plan applications and issuing payment cards to include replacements; vi. Identifying, managing and collecting from accounts in arrears (see section 4.1.1 for further specifics on this requirement); vii. Revoking licences where the licence fee is uncollected; viii. Cancelling licences in appropriate circumstances where a customer has only partially paid the licence fee and ensuring accurate payment data is provided to the TVL administrator; ix. Providing refunds to customers, where applicable; x. Providing accurate accounting and clear management information regarding collection services, to be reported to the BBC on a monthly basis; xi. Providing detailed analysis in regards to scheme performance and recommendations for improvement: xii. Providing marketing communications and print facilities which are fit for the customer groups and meet quality control requirements: xiii. Securely managing the flow of funds received from customers (including funds received from over the counter suppliers), reconciling funds received versus licences issued and disbursing monies received to the TVL Administrator; xiv. Administering bank accounts with appropriate internal controls; xv. Putting in place preventative measures and developing mitigation techniques to prevent the occurrence of fraud by customers and/or employees; xvi. Providing a comprehensive investigation and prompt response/rectification of customer complaints, in accordance with the BBC’s complaint management framework; xvii. Using root cause analysis to continually improve service support and reduce systematic errors and issues; and xviii. Ensuring that processes comply with all relevant legislation and BBC Policies. The Service Provider will be required to manage and collect arrears proactively from customers who default or who are likely to default on payments; support customers to maintain payments, and manage the collection of arrears via the appropriate inbound and outbound channels. The Service Provider will be required to manage potentially high volumes of low value arrears using techniques that balance cost effectiveness with revenue collection.

Renewal Options

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.

CPV Codes

• 79940000 - Collection agency services

Indicators

• This is a one-off contract (no recurrence)
• Options are available.
• Renewals are not available.
• Professional qualifications are sought.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** In the case of technology requirements, the BBC may involve its technology partner (Atos IT Solutions and Services Limited) to assist in the scoping and drafting of invitations to tender and/or the evaluation of tenders. However, the final decision as to which is the most economically advantageous (by reference to the award criteria) will be made by the BBC. The awarding authority reserves the right not to award a contract and to annul the procurement process at any stage. Tenders and all supporting documents must be priced in sterling and all payments will be made in sterling. The contract shall be subject to English law. The awarding authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest, or any tender and reserves the right to accept part of a tender unless the tenderer expressly stipulates otherwise in the tender document.