DWP Contingency Payment Services

Tender description

This procurement is for the provision of the DWP Payment Contingency Services and a Sponsor Bank. A Sponsor Bank is required to support the functionality of the Payment Contingency Services. Without a Sponsor Bank in place, the Payment Contingency Services is unable to operate. This contingency service is invoked in situations when there is a delay with release of the BACS payment file, which contains benefit and pension payments and the Department's ability to make payment on time is threatened. The service transforms BACS payments into Faster Payments to ensure customers receive their benefit/pension entitlement on their due date, reducing reputational risk and satisfying the Secretary of State's obligation. The end to end Payment Contingency service requires two separate components, these are: • LOT 1 - A service to reformat BACS payments into Faster Payments for onward submission into the Faster Payment infrastructure • LOT 2 - A Sponsor Bank for the settlement of funds with the Bank of England. DWP makes circa. 2.5m payments per day and pays over £3.7bn per week. The end to end solution must be available from 01/07/22. Suppliers can submit a bid for the LOT 1 or LOT 2 services or both services. The Authority do not require the LOT 1 supplier to manage the LOT 2 supplier. Clarification questions may be submitted up to 23.59 on the 11 March 2022. For transparency, clarification questions and responses will be shared with all interested suppliers, all sensitive information will be removed prior to wider publication. Please Note: The Authority reserves the right to end the tendering process at any time and not to award a contract. Any costs incurred in the preparation and submitting of a bid and any subsequent activity connected to this tender exercise will be met by the Supplier, not the Authority. Additional information: The contingency contract will contain the option to be extended by 1+1 years beyond the original term. Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted electronically via https://dwp.bravosolution.co.uk/