Rent arrears in the social housing sector have exceeded £1bn during the pandemic. With the continued rising cost of living, the growing volumes of accounts which have fallen into arrears has increased pressure on staff and customers alike.
As the former tenant arrears process is repetitive in nature and requires continuous applied effort, this is the kind of task that is ideally suited for automation. Communication process is invoked when the tenant is on notice. The Robot can perform validation checks for each former tenant account and adding appropriate actions on the back of the checks to accelerate the debt collection process. Backlog can be cleared without additional resources or adding the burden to existing staff.
By using Software Robots to augment the limited human resource, real progress can be made in contacting former customers, reducing the former tenant arrears position and increasing the recovery of outstanding debt.
One of our customers from the Housing sector reported 2.5 times increase in FTA collection in the first three months after implementation: The automation was first launched in May, the number of recoveries increased by 2.5 times compared with April. June and July's figures have held up at the May increase levels. The team is now working on putting in a contact strategy to increase frequency through second and subsequent contact to increase these numbers further.
The automated solution enables housing associations to take a proactive approach in tackling former tenant arrears. The early intervention through robots can help to better manage the former tenant arrears accounts in terms of identifying those that can be escalated through the recovery process, and which are best to write off as irrecoverable. (Case study - Aspire Housing: Recovering More Former Tenant Arrears faster, with multi-channel Robot engagement)
If you would like to hear more about how to apply RPA to your Former Tenant Arrears Recovery process, register here for a demonstration or discuss with one of our consultants.