Member Article

One Housing drives up collection rates with predictive analytics

One Housing Group, a London based Housing Association, has increased collection rates by using Mobysoft’s RentSense, a predictive analytical solution.

One Housing Group were keen to improve their arrears process and collection rates to ready the organisation for full-service Universal Credit. Research shows that in the long-term organisations can expect collection rates to drop by 3.6%, whereas in the transition period to UC collection rates will drop to 67%.

“The case for RentSense is to increase collection in the first three months by reacting more quickly, and if the collection rate is impacted by 3.6% over the longer term then we want that to impact from the highest possible base. So rather than starting at 99%, where we were before RentSense, we are now starting at 101%. Essentially the strategic aim for choosing RentSense was to ensure we had our accounts in the best possible state to weather the storm we could see coming with Universal Credit,” Vincent Thomas, Assistant Director at One Housing explains.

The rising collection rates mean that One Housing has collected £600,000 more across general needs properties in the financial year 2016/17 and a further £150,000 improvement on leasehold stock over the same period, with arrears also falling by about 19%. There has continued to be a similar level of improvement in 2017/18, and in this financial year One Housing achieved over 100% collection on every single patch for the first time.

The decision to invest in RentSense has also helped deliver some key efficiencies, it has reduced the officer caseload by around 35%, and also created the full-time equivalent (FTE) of 4.3 officers.

“With a good strategy and good people, you still need great tools to deliver excellent performance. RentSense reduces wasted effort and lets us focus on our positive work. Arrears can cause our residents a great deal of stress but early intervention really helps us help them. RentSense has assisted us do this without having to increase staff, and our collection rates have really improved,” comments Vincent.

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