June 8, 2020
The headline says it all: Has the UK Just Quietly Seen One of the Most Successful Government IT Projects Ever?
Following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, the Home Office set out to create a simple application process allowing 3.5 million EEA nationals to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Applicants need to complete just three key steps – prove their identity, show that they live in the UK, and declare any criminal convictions. To make this as simple as possible, the Home Office sought out new innovative capabilities to create an optional end-to-end digital application channel.
iProov worked with WorldReach Software and InnoValor to deliver a scalable, secure, and usable solution. The details of the project can be seen in this excellent case study from WorldReach.
The highlights of the project:
- More than 3.1 million applications have been successfully concluded.
- A high percentage completed their application in under 10 minutes, with a high level of identity assurance.
- Over 2,300 different makes and models of Android and iOS devices have been used to complete the identity verification process.
- Peaks of 25,000-30,000 applications per day have been supported.
- In a 2019 EUSS survey, 79% of applicants indicated that proving their identity through the app was either “very easy” or “fairly easy”. A further 7% found it neither difficult nor easy.
- The app receives an average 4.1 star satisfaction rating on Google Play Store.
How does the EU Settlement Scheme app work?
The app enables EEA nationals living in the UK to complete an application in under 10 minutes, using the following innovations to ensure high levels of identity assurance:
- Remote identity documentation checking using the InnoValor solution. Passports, driver’s licenses, or other ID credentials can be scanned using a phone using either near field communication (NFC) to read the chip in the document, or optical character recognition (OCR) which reads information from a photo of the document.
- Biometric identity authentication using iProov’s Genuine Presence Assurance technology to ensure that the person is the right person, a real person, and authenticating right now.
“There has never been a more crucial time for highly trusted, proven-in-use remote identity verification services given the Covid-19 situation, especially for government digital on-boarding and essential services delivery,” said Gordon Wilson, WorldReach CEO. “The EUSS is a very successful, scalable proof-point of what’s possible and achievable with the right end-to-end processes, technology and collaborative team.”
Find out more about iProov’s biometric authentication services in government and public sector here.
