the
Web Benefits Calculator the
Web Benefits Calculator 
the standard "classic" wbc is colourful, compact and cheerful
the "extra plain" wbc is for the purists. No images, no
tables and no deprecated tags, this version is so plain it can seem a tad dull - but it checks with W3C as valid XHTML 1.0
Transitional 
for those folk who don't like good old-fashioned
JavaScript (often citing Accessibility issues) the "so cool" PHP server side versions of the wbc are now available
- the standard "classic" PHP wbc and the ultimate "Dual extra plain" PHP wbc. NB each WebBenCalc now
includes a separate one web page LHA (bed)room entitlement calculator as a
free add on.
As you may know, our WebBenCalc product (in the footsteps of the famous Quick Benefits Calculator) runs on your Web Site, giving your customers 24 * 7 online access to Benefits estimates and giving you an instant "e-government" project. And if, for any reason, you can't hoist the WebBenCalc onto your own website - we can host it for you ! Our WBC customers tell us that the program provides 2 valuable services - (1) greatly assists the level of benefit "take up" and (2) suppresses the level of "hopeless" benefit claims. Since it's launch in 2002, some very tasteful manifestations of the WebBenCalc have appeared on various prestigious web sites. Take a moment to search on the Web for "Web Benefits Calculator" and check the sites listed. Below are some recommended samples - PS these sites are dynamic so the links can change !
|
Bedford Borough Council
http://www.forms.bedford.gov.uk/ben_calc/wbc-2007.htm ( smart ) |
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The licence fee for an LA (or any organisation) to run the Web Benefits Calculator on their website is between just £350
and £950 per annum, depending on the user size and flavour. This subscription service covers all maintenance updates, enhancements and
support (excluding the user’s own modifications and customisation). We can confirm that the final calculations are generally acknowledged
to be precise.
There should be no technical issues - the standard WebBenCalc runs without any script
complications so it should be fine on any server configuration. Remember that you can customise the appearance
of the page as much as you like - just leave our embedded (slightly scrambled) javascript
code and the form fields safely alone. So you can change the html to compliment
your overall site design as much as you like. We've standardised on one "vanilla" (Arial) font and a couple of body styles - so users
can change the whole appearance by just altering a couple of body style
statements! And the html code has been cleaned to meet W3C standard [with CSE
HTML Validator] - find more technical data on our
FAQ's page and read about the PHP version. And another thing, being html, the WebBenCalc runs on PDA's
(handhelds) as well !
The WBC program features an automatic in-line Tax Credit
calculation (if appropriate) for Working Tax Credit, Child Tax
Credit and Pension Credit. We have also suppressed the
display of various "unnecessary" fields, And we've been adopting sundry
suggestions to "de-jargonize" the screen text wherever possible, so the form is
now even easier to understand and is getting pretty close to the
Crystal Mark Standard.
The maintenance updates will normally be supplied two times a year (usually
Spring and Autumn). If legislation causes considerable modification then a
complete re-installation will be necessary. If an update only involves new
figures then a block of code will be supplied for user substitution. The WebBenCalc product is tested to run with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 /
Netscape 6.0 / Firefox 1.0 or higher. Otech believes that it runs perfectly well under earlier
browser versions but cannot quite guarantee full functionality for every earlier
browser.
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