Modern Council Payments: What Citizens Expect, and Where Current Systems Fall Short

Insights from a national study of 1,000+ UK citizens, commissioned by HeyCentric in partnership with Stripe.

Payments are one of the most frequent interactions citizens have with their council. As digital channels become the default, reliability, ease of use, and accessibility are central to effective service delivery, income collection, and public trust.

This research explores how citizens experience council payments today, where friction persists, and what this means for the future of council income management and digital services across UK local authorities.

What this research covers:

How citizens prefer to pay their council today
What drives payment satisfaction and completion
Where online payment journeys break down
The role of automation, saved credentials, and manual digital payments
How expectations are shifting, especially among younger citizens
Practical implications for council income management and digital services, including accessibility and inclusion considerations

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Do you have real-time visibility into all income streams—or are you waiting until end-of-day or month-end to understand your true cash position? *

We have real-time visibility into all income streams across channels and systems, with automatic all We see cash by channel, but reconciliation lags due to legacy systems. We only get end-of-day or end-of-month cash position after manual consolidation. Not sure – reporting cadence varies by system and department.

Are existing payment systems limiting your ability to offer payment methods that citizens want, like digital wallets or pay-by-link? *

Our existing payment systems limit adoption of pay-by-link and wallets; we need end-to-end orchestra We’ve started upgrading for some added payment methods, but lack automatic propagation to downstream We rely on separate systems for payments and accounting; no real-time cross-system impact. We’re evaluating vendors for a phased upgrade.

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