About
Benefits finder is a world first banking solution, connecting our customers in a targeted way with unclaimed third party rebates and benefits, helping to put money back in the pockets of those who need it most.
Innovation presentation
CBA’s purpose is to improve the financial wellbeing of our customers and the community. To help deliver on this, we researched the unsolved global phenomenon of unclaimed social benefits. We found that while ~$115bn1 in welfare payments are made each year in Australia, billions more go unclaimed by vulnerable Australians, due primarily to lack of awareness or complexity to claim.
In response, we created Benefits finder, a global-first banking feature focused on an unsolved social problem that also delivers on our purpose. Introduced in Dec-18, it is a targeted digital solution that connects customers in Australia with potentially 250 benefits they may be entitled to, helping to remove the awareness and complexity barriers currently preventing them from claiming.
Available in our app and online banking platforms, we utilise our market-leading Customer Engagement Engine to send targeted messages to our customers letting them know they may be eligible for unclaimed benefits. From there we provide an easy to follow process where our customers can discover benefits and begin an application in just a few clicks.
Benefits finder was developed utilising a unique, multi-disciplinary team of behavioural economists, data science, digital delivery, UX, strategy and academic partners at Harvard University where we combined global-best research with rigorous experimentation.
We estimate Benefits finder will deliver over $150m annually to our customers once fully scaled. We’ve seen significant uptake since Dec-18, having sent targeted messaging to more than 2.2m customers resulting in up to $40m in claims, putting money back into our customers’ pockets.
Uniqueness of the project
This is a global first and focuses on an unsolved social problem that delivers on our purpose. Utilising a unique, multi-disciplinary team of behavioural economists, data science, digital delivery, UX, strategy and academic partners we combined global best research with numerous experiments to solve for the main barriers to claiming benefits.
In collaboration with Harvard STAR Lab we have conducted further research and contributed to the global body of knowledge.
This evidence based approach ensured we created a solution that would make inroads on a complex problem by making it as easy as possible for customers to claim. We also addressed issues preventing organisations from connecting benefits with customers. Using our market leading technology we created a data-driven approach to predict customer eligibility and integrated this with our Customer Engagement Engine to send targeted messaging. This ability to predict potential eligibility and then proactively contact customers sets us apart.
