Hillingdon Council has built a digital service for winter grant applications at high speed to support residents suffering hardship from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The London borough has used the Goss Digital Platform create an application form and business process for the grants, delivering it in four days in mid-December after the tightening of lockdown restrictions.
It reported that it received 845 applications in the first two days and around 1,500 by the first week of January.
Under the process, an individual makes an application that can be cross-referenced by the council against a list of children qualifying for free school meals. If it is not possible to establish eligibility its staff can check through the platform if the applicants receive any other qualifying benefits. Details of those who are eligible are sent to the payments team.