Pega Helps HMRC to Mitigate Risk for UK Government’s COVID-19 Support Initiatives

CAMBRIDGE, MA – October 14, 2020 – Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA), the software company empowering digital transformation at the world’s leading enterprises, has announced that it has been working with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to support the UK government’s COVID-19 initiatives by helping it to mitigate against fraud and risk with businesses and individuals applying for support.

The government programs aimed at job retention, supporting income for the self-employed, support for the hospitality industry, and providing rebates for statutory sick pay, were all introduced earlier this year by Chancellor Rishi Sunak as part of the government’s measures to help businesses and individuals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The department was already using Pega Intelligent Automation case management solutions for 18 years to assist with customer service, fraud investigation, customs, and legal. This included the department’s Caseflow application, which helps with compliance and enforcement of risk management and assessment relating to potential tax avoidance, fraud, and insufficient tax payment. 

With support from Coforge, a Pega platinum partner, Pega extended the department’s existing Caseflow application to mitigate against potential risk around each of the four COVID-19 plans. The new capabilities were configured, tested, and deployed in just eight days. Pega Consulting also helped implement Pega Attended RPA™ as part of its intelligent automation strategy to automate the process of stopping payments where risk was identified – a project that was implemented from start to finish inside two weeks.

As of  September 20, the government’s program to support job retention had received claims totalling £39.3 billion from 1.2 million employers, while as of the same date, grants claimed for the second initiative aimed at supporting income for the self-employed reached a total of £5.6 billion, following 2.2 million claims since August 17, 2020. HMRC received 2.6 million claims for £7.6 billion under the first of these income support measures for the self-employed through to July 31, 2020.

Quotes & Commentary:

“As soon as the Chancellor’s initiatives were announced, we knew HMRC could benefit from its existing Pega capabilities alongside the swift addition of robotic automation technology,” said Iain Tollemache, senior client success manager, Pegasystems. “It was clear that this would enable the department to automate manual aspects of its existing claims validation process and to ensure payments were made quickly to those who needed them while managing cases where claims could put the department at risk. I’m pleased we were able to play a part in helping HMRC deliver on the Chancellor’s commitment to helping those in need as a result of the pandemic.”

“We’re delighted to expand our longstanding relationship with HMRC and not only help them further leverage our intelligent automation expertise but also provide our robotics solutions to address a critical need within such a short period of time,” said Kieran Tarrant, vice president and managing director, UK & Ireland, Pegasystems. “During times of crisis, it’s important to have technological solutions that are fast, easy, and open, to allow organizations to be agile and work swiftly and decisively.”