Member Article

SYHA creates immediate efficiencies with Tech Investment

South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) has deployed Rentsense to help create immediate efficiencies and to help them mitigate ongoing welfare reform and Universal Credit.

In preparation for Universal Credit and an increased workload South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) was keen to create efficiencies in with their workload and process to enable income officers to better support tenants and maximise income revenue, as Tim Crawford, Rent and Lettings Manager at SYHA explains:

“We wanted a solution that would assist our arrears recovery processes and help us effectively target our arrears work and prioritise cases which required most urgent attention. We know Universal Credit will lead to increases in workload. It will be important that we quickly and effectively identify which customers we need to contact to discuss their arrears and payments.”

Part of the procurement process for SYHA was seeing Rentsense in-situ at other social landlords, where, according to Tim, ‘the feedback was very positive.’

The deployment of Rentsense is also a quick and simple process, taking around just twelve weeks and it helps create immediate efficiencies.

“At the moment there are cases that the Housing Officers are looking at on a regular basis that do not need any action taking up valuable time that could be used elsewhere,” comments Tim.

And on the day of go live and training Rentsense reduced SYHA’s overall caseload from 2,761, as recommended by their HMS, to just 744 cases. Which is central to helping the officers’ target resources in the right areas.

After such a positive start SYHA see Rentsense as a key tool in mitigating Universal Credit and helping them with mobile working.

“We are also anticipating an increase in income and improvements in performance with the minimal disruption to staff,” concludes Tim.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Adrian Mills .