By shifting child benefit reviews from a manual process to a rule-driven automation, GW reduced errors and improved efficiency for the Isle of Man’s benefits department, with positive outcomes for the team and benefit recipients.
Each year between July and September, the Isle of Man’s Benefits Processing Services (BPS) team manually reviewed over 5,000 Child Benefit claims involving children aged 18 and over. Staff had to check each case, remove ineligible children, and close or reassign claims where needed. The process was resource-heavy, error-prone, and unsupported by existing systems, which lacked even basic logic to filter or automate by child age. The result was a recurring operational bottleneck that consumed time, created IT dependencies, and exposed the organisation to compliance and reputational risk.
Without automation, the BPS team handled each transition manually, navigating complex benefit rules and exceptions such as twins or families with mixed ages. The absence of system logic or audit trails led to inconsistent rule application, limited transparency for compliance teams and perhaps most critically, delayed or inaccurate payments. This not only created problems for the team, but had a significant impact on residents. To reduce manual effort and improve accuracy, consistency, and control, the process had to be streamlined, automated and modernised.
GW worked with the Isle of Man Government to design and deliver a rule-based PL/SQL automation within the existing system. The new system automatically identifies eligible and ineligible claims, applies the correct business logic, and records every action in a fully auditable log. It also integrates with external tax services to validate income data and maintain compliance. By embedding automation directly into the benefits system, GW created a sustainable solution that removes manual reviews entirely while maintaining accuracy, traceability, and scalability for future updates.
The new process transformed annual claim reviews, cutting manual processing time by 90% and achieving full compliance with benefit policy rules. Accuracy improved across all cases, eliminating errors and freeing staff to focus on higher-value work.
With a full audit trail and scalable design, the system now delivers faster, more consistent outcomes every year, strengthening both efficiency and public trust.
This structured, co-creative approach ensured rapid delivery, smooth adoption, and long-term sustainability.
By focusing on a single, high-volume process, the Isle of Man Government delivered measurable value quickly: greater efficiency, perfect compliance, and full transparency through embedded automation. It’s a clear demonstration of the Intelligence Blueprint approach, tackling one process at a time to build lasting operational intelligence across the organisation.
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