01 | STRATEGIC ADVISORY FOR GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS
How government moves money shapes how public services work.
NexGov Advisory helps government leaders modernise how they pay, collect and account for public money. We use evidence from today’s operations and insight into what’s changing to design better operating models and build practical plans for reform. Reduce fraud and leakage, reconcile payments faster, and make it easier for people to pay government and receive what they’re due.
THE PAYMENT JOURNEY
01 Policy & eligibility
02 Identity & authorisation
03 Payment
04 Confirmation & resolution
05 Reconciliation & oversight
02 | THE WHOLE PUBLIC SERVICE
Payments are policy in motion.
An emergency support payment can reach a bank account in seconds. A household can still wait days if eligibility checks stall or nobody owns a failed payment.
The outcome depends on how policy, operations, finance, technology and providers work together. NexGov traces how money, information and responsibility move between them, so leaders can see what to change across the service.
03 | ADVISORY SERVICES
What decision are you facing?
Strategic advisory for government payments, from understanding where you are today to designing what comes next and delivering reform in practice.
UNDERSTAND
Executive training
Briefings and workshops that equip senior leaders and teams to understand payment risk, cost, ask the right questions of providers and lead modernisation with confidence.
04 | HOW WE WORK
Assess today's payments. Shape what comes next.
NexGov combines evidence from current operations with a practical view of how payments are changing. We help government leaders decide what to improve now, where to test new approaches and what foundations to put in place for the future.
01 | ASSESS NOW
Government Payments Maturity Assessment
WHERE ARE YOU TODAY, AND WHAT SHOULD CHANGE FIRST?​
We assess how payments work across the whole service, from eligibility through to collection, disbursement, exception handling and reconciliation. Financial Risk & Efficiency Intelligence (FRI) helps quantify opportunities where the evidence supports it.
WHAT YOU GET
A clear view of current capability, the risks and costs that need attention, and a prioritised set of actions.
02 | SHAPE TOMORROW
Payments Innovation
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WHAT SHOULD YOU PREPARE FOR, TEST OR ADOPT?
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We assess how real-time payments, digital identity and wallets, AI agents and new forms of digital money could address a service problem. We examine what each option means for users, controls, infrastructure and accountability.
WHAT YOU GET
A short-list of credible use cases, the conditions needed to test them, and which investments will keep future options open.
TURN THE FINDINGS INTO A PLAN
A roadmap for what to improve first, what to pilot and how to measure results.
Evidence for Decisions
Financial Risk & Efficiency Intelligence (FRI) helps leaders quantify where fraud, manual reconciliation and avoidable costs are affecting services, then decide where to act.
ILLUSTRATIVE SCENARIO
TAX PAYMENT ERROR AND EFFICIENCY
$60-$120m
in avoidable costs
$250-$400m
FRAUDMENT ERROR AND EFFICIENCY
Potential annual fraud losses avoided
$10-$25m
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
Process efficiency savings
**All financial ranges presented by NexGov are grounded in publicly available government data sources, including NAO reports, OBR analyses, departmental fraud and error publications, PSP reconciliation statistics, and operational resilience assessments.
NexGov applies conservative modelling consistent with HM Treasury Green Book principles, using ranges rather than point estimates to reflect uncertainty and avoid over‑attribution.
Figures represent indicative exposure, efficiency potential, or resilience uplift based on typical programme volumes and industry‑recognised benchmarks. They do not constitute realised savings for any specific department, programme, or client.**
05 | PAYMENTS FUTURES
What’s changing in government payments?
Innovation changes how services are designed and who can act on public money. NexGov helps leaders decide what to adopt, what to test and what foundations to put in place first.
AI and the Intelligent Payments Ecosystem
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AI is bringing real-time analysis and automation into payment operations. It can help governments detect anomalies earlier and resolve exceptions faster.
Digital identity, Wallets and Future Citizen Interfaces
Digital identity and wallets are bringing identity checks, access to services and payments into a single citizen journey. People could prove who they are and receive support with fewer repeated checks
Agentic Payments
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Software agents are gaining the ability to initiate transactions within defined permissions. This changes how governments delegate authority and account for actions taken on their behalf.
Central Bank Digital Currencies: The Evolution of Sovereign Money
Central banks are exploring new forms of sovereign digital money. These could give governments another way to settle payments directly in central bank money.
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Programmable Payments and Conditional Public Expenditure
Programmable payments allow transactions to execute when defined rules or verified conditions are met. Governments could link the release of grants or contract payments directly to confirmed milestones.
Stablecoins, Tokenised Deposits and a Multi-Money Future
Stablecoins and tokenised bank deposits are introducing alternative approaches to representing and transferring value. They could change how governments settle and reconcile payments across borders.
Cross-Border Government Payments
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Connected payment networks and new settlement options are changing how governments move money across borders. They could reduce delays and make it easier to track and reconcile payments across currencies and jurisdictions.
Geopolitics, Sovereignty and Strategic Dependencies
Geopolitical shifts are reshaping who controls the networks, platforms and providers that move public money. These dependencies can affect whether governments can keep payments running through disruption or switch providers when they need to.
06 | THE ANATOMY OF GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS
The Anatomy of Government Payments
Forthcoming, Volume I by Richard Laycock.
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A guide for leaders responsible for how government pays, collects and accounts for public money.
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The book follows the payment beyond the transaction. It explores how design, controls and accountability determine whether a payment actually delivers the intended public service. It gives leaders a way to explore the choices behind the changing payments landscape in depth.
07 | ABOUT
Government delivery and global payments experience
NexGov Advisory is led by Richard Laycock, who has run government payments at scale and advised and helped governments worldwide modernise how public money moves. That combination of operational delivery and global payments insight shapes every engagement.
Richard Laycock
Founder, NexGov Advisory
Deep "Inside-Government" Perspective
Global Payments Experience