Recommendation 15

The Government should not wait for local authorities to approach the Cabinet Office to learn how they can make better use of data sharing, but instead create an environment where this happens easily and consistently. We recommend that: • an application for universal credit automatically trigger an application for local council tax support; • the memorandum of understanding between HMRC and DWP be reviewed so that council teams can share relevant benefits data with their council tax teams; • the Digital Economy Act pilots be rolled out more widely; and • the Government consider further ways of enabling and encouraging greater data sharing between different groups for the purpose of identifying residents who are at risk of falling into council tax arrears; this may require the Information Commissioner’s Office either to clarify the relevant provisions of its data-sharing code of practice, or to raise awareness of it within local government, if there is evidence of an overly cautious approach being taken to data sharing within local authorities.