Crest Plus is one of the UK’s leading providers of contractor payments and accountancy services. Established in 1999, Crest Plus provides services for all types of contractor through two brands: Umbrella and the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). Both services ensure that contractors are paid on time and are eligible to work in the UK. In addition, they provide freelance accountancy solutions for contractors in a range of sectors from construction to healthcare, as well as some of the UK’s largest recruitment agencies, such as Reed and Hays.

Crest Plus uses LexisNexis® IDU® software to authenticate identification documents such as passports and birth certificates for employed and self-employed contractors in order to fulfil its legal and regulatory obligations to check if an individual is eligible to work in the UK.

“Quickly and accurately determining whether an identity is legitimate or false is vital to us in retaining integrity in our operations – it means not compromising legislation around people’s right to work in the UK and ensuring that we’re not facilitating employment agencies in putting workers on site that are not eligible to work in this country, which in turn puts their safety and the safety of legitimate workers around them, at risk,” says Paul Flannery, Operations Manager at Crest Plus.

Previously, the company had relied on manually checking identity documents for workers, a slower process that leaves open the possibility of things being missed and workers being put at risk, without management ever being aware of a problem.

Implementing the LexisNexis® IDU® identity checks has helped Crest Plus improve business efficiencies substantially, replacing manual checking with an instant, streamlined process that is not only quicker, but greatly reduces the margin for error.

“There have been a number of occasions over the past 18 months where LexisNexis® IDU® software has found issues with an individual’s documentation straight away and we’ve been able to go back to the agency in question with our findings and help them address the situation swiftly,” Paul explains.

The ability to store data and provide a clear audit trail, should the firm be subjected to legal checks at a later date, was another important requirement for Crest Plus in selecting a solutions provider, and this is an integral part of the LexisNexis® IDU® offering.

“The fact that LexisNexis® IDU® software is slick and provides instant results means we are able to store all the data and retrieve it quickly at any time,” Paul continues. “This is a great benefit, because if we were ever to undergo a UK Border inspection, accessing all of the relevant data on file and proving that the checks have been done correctly, would be vital.”

With LexisNexis® IDU® helping Crest Plus to create a more streamlined business offering and onboarding contractors more quickly and with greater efficiency, the company can now focus on providing a high quality, risk free service to its customers.

“We like LexisNexis Risk Solutions and we like the software,” says Paul. “The people I have dealt with have been fantastic and their customer service is great. They support our drive to provide first-class service to our customers and the software helps us to provide a highly-reliable, compliant service to our agency partners, by reducing risk and helping us to onboard contractors quickly and efficiently.” he concludes.