The relevant concepts to this guide are:
Using a smart lookup, you can conduct quick background checks on your users.
If these checks return a good result, you may be able to request fewer pieces of evidence from them and still meet your compliance rules.
This can give your onboarding a boost, since having to provide lots of evidence can put users off.
In this guide, we'll look at how to check the electoral roll and if there is a positive hit, skip one of the pieces of evidence we ask the user for:
1. Preparation
Publish two verification flows:
Ask for proof of identity and address, by turning on both the photo ID and supporting document steps
A simpler streamlined flow that only asks for proof of identity
2. Get the validated address
You will need a way to collect from the user:
last name
first name
postcode
street address
Since the electoral roll does not support fuzzy matching, we recommend implementing a postcode lookup design pattern, with:
a text input for the postcode and a "search" or "lookup" button
a way to select the street address from the search results
We have a search postcode endpoint which will return matching street addresses for a given postcode, from Post Office records.
It's good practice to give users a way to enter their address manually, in case it has not yet been added to the PAF.
However, if the user chooses to do this, you are much less likely to find an electoral roll match.
3. Send the user down the correct flow
Use the perform smart lookup endpoint to run the check.
You will get a report that shows what checks passed. If you are able to verify the address this way, you can send the user down the simplified flow.
Start a verification session using the request verification endpoint, passing in the relevant workflow_id based on whether the check above passed.
Further reading
Explore the full API documentation or our 3-minute video guide.