The Money and Pensions Service has invested £30k in a system from specialist commercial provider Inbest which has a ‘vision of automating the process of getting benefits, grants, and discounts’

An arm’s-length body of the Department for Work and Pensions is to deliver a new government online benefits-checker by deploying a “white-labelled” version of a commercial tool that supports users in checking eligibility.

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) first revealed last summer that it planned to use its MoneyHelper public advice website to create a “benefits calculator”. The aim of the new tool would be to help citizens “increase and maximise their disposable income”, according to commercial documents published in July.

A newly published procurement notice reveals that, as of 5 May, MaPS has now entered into a contract with its chosen supplier: InBest.

“MaPS MoneyHelper has been testing a two-stage benefits calculator where the public first receive an estimate of their potential entitlements before moving on to a more detailed calculation,” the notice adds. “MaPS procured a white-labelled tool with support and maintenance for an initial period of three years with the option of a further 12 months.”

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Headquartered in Edinburgh, InBest’s website says that the firm’s “vision is that vulnerable households receive support as soon as needed… [and] we aim to achieve our vision by automating the process of getting benefits, grants, and discounts — from awareness and assessment to payments and monitoring”.

The site adds that “we leverage the Open Finance infrastructure and partner with governments, local authorities, and customer-centric organisations focused on financial inclusion”.

The firm’s clients and partners include the likes of the London Borough of Barnet, benefits advice specialist Hope4U, and Lloyds Banking Group, which recently incorporated InBest’s benefits calculator into the mobile banking apps of Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland.

The benefits-checking software is now set to be integrated in a similar way into the government’s MoneyHelper site.