Ceredigion County Council has awarded a £100,007 contract for software designed to detect incorrectly claimed council tax discounts and properties avoiding additional charges.

The contract, awarded to London based Infoshare+ Limited, was agreed on 28 August and published through the government's procurement system on 8 October.

The technology will be used to review single-person discounts and identify properties potentially avoiding premiums applied to second homes and long-term empty properties.

Residents who live alone are ordinarily entitled to a 25 percent discount on their council tax bills.

Meanwhile, Ceredigion charges a 150 percent premium on second homes, meaning owners pay two-and-a-half times the standard council tax rate.

Long-term empty properties face premiums of between 100 and 200 percent, depending on how long they have remained unoccupied.

According to Infoshare+, its technology uses data matching to identify potentially incorrect claims, drawing on information including credit records, property data and electoral registration.

The company says its approach allows councils to identify discrepancies between declared circumstances and evidence suggesting a property is occupied differently.

However, being flagged for investigation does not necessarily mean a resident has provided incorrect information.

The £100,007 contract, excluding VAT, was awarded through the government's G-Cloud 14 procurement framework, with the published notice recording one tender received.

Ceredigion County Council has previously undertaken reviews of single-person discounts, including working with the Datatank service in 2023.

The latest contract notice does not specify how many properties will be examined or how much additional council tax revenue the authority expects to recover.

It also does not detail what opportunities residents will have to challenge potential discrepancies.

The spending comes as councils face continuing financial pressures and seek to ensure discounts and exemptions are awarded correctly. Money recovered could ultimately help fund services throughout the county.