Case Study: Reading Borough Council achieves stronger fraud detection through a shared data hub with Civica

Reading Borough Council - Customer Case Study

Reading Borough Council needed a more effective way to detect and prevent housing and benefits fraud by joining up datasets across the council and local housing associations. To address this, the council partnered with Civica and deployed the Civica Fraud Solution, which went live on 2 February 2016 and provides access to more than 10,000 housing rent records.

Civica implemented a shared fraud hub that aggregates 12 data feeds—including council tax, benefits, electoral registration, rental data from Affinity and Thames Valley Housing Associations, and credit reference data—so partners can cross-check records, manage cases, and report back to housing providers. At launch the Civica hub gave access to over 10,000 rental records, improved real-time data sharing among partners, and establishes a scalable model Civica has previously delivered for Birmingham City Council that can be extended to other authorities and social landlords.

Reading Borough Council

Les Nicholson

Corporate Fraud Manager