Our partnerships with GLA and Thames Water put £50m into pockets

Policy in Practice partnership with Mayor of London extended for a fourth year after latest £40 million success

Our long standing partnership with the Mayor of London continues to deliver real impact. This month, City Hall announced that nearly 9,000 older London households have now claimed £40 million in Pension Credit, support they were entitled to but might otherwise have missed out on.

The Mayor’s campaign, powered by Policy in Practice, is now in its fourth year. This continued investment reflects the campaign’s success and the crucial role of our LIFT platform in helping City Hall identify and reach the Londoners most at risk of missing out.

Our Missing Out 2025 analysis found that £4.1 billion in benefits will go unclaimed across London this year alone, including £326 million in Pension Credit. Insights like these have guided the Mayor’s team to target support where it can make the biggest difference.

Building on this success, the next phase of the campaign will extend support beyond older people to help disabled Londoners and families on low incomes access missed entitlements such as Personal Independence Payment and Healthy Start Vouchers.

“Too many Londoners miss out on vital support because the system is hard to navigate,” said Deven Ghelani, Policy in Practice. “We’re proud to work in partnership with the Mayor to turn complex data into action. This collaboration has already put millions into older Londoners’ pockets and extending it again will make a life changing difference to even more households.”

Water company, councils and Policy in Practice partner to deliver automatic bill support worth £10 million for low income households

A pioneering partnership between Thames Water, 17 London boroughs and Policy in Practice is ensuring thousands of low income Londoners automatically receive water bill support, a first for the UK water industry.

Using Policy in Practice’s LIFT platform, councils and Thames Water can securely identify households struggling with rising costs and automatically enrol them for financial help, removing the need for lengthy applications. With water bills up 26% on average over the past year, the support provides vital relief to those who need it most.

The initiative, announced this month, builds on a successful pilot in Wandsworth and Richmond upon Thames, which helped 1,800 households access £650,000 in support. Now expanding to 15 more boroughs, it’s expected to reach 33,000 households, delivering over £10 million in savings.

“Rising water bills put real pressure on families already struggling to make ends meet,” said Deven Ghelani, Policy in Practice. “By using data to identify and automatically support eligible households, our partnership with Thames Water and local authorities ensures help reaches people quickly, without the burden of complex applications. It’s a positive step that sets a strong example for the sector.”

Each year, our software helps clients unlock around £2 billion in unclaimed support for households across the UK. The Thames Water partnership shows how the same approach can help other utilities and councils proactively deliver financial resilience at scale.

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Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea embeds LIFT across the council to strengthen resident support

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is leading the way in using data to drive better outcomes for residents. This month, its first LIFT Together event celebrated community, collaboration and opportunity.

The event brought together around 50 officers, stakeholders and partners in the Mayor’s Parlour to share ideas, build connections and explore how Policy in Practice's LIFT platform is being used across the council to deliver real results for residents.

The team has already achieved impressive outcomes using LIFT:

Partnering with Registered Social Landlords to reach thousands of residents, helping households become £200 better off each month, roughly the cost of four weeks’ food for a single household

Supporting over 180 pensioners in 2025 to claim more than £691,000 in Pension Credit as part of our campaign with the Greater London Authority

Increasing Healthy Start voucher take up by 9% in just two months through targeted, trackable text message campaigns.

“It’s brilliant to see how RBKC is using LIFT to drive collaboration, spark innovation and achieve real results for residents,” said Tylor Maria Johnson, Policy in Practice. “Their LIFT Together event shows what’s possible when data is embedded across teams to deliver impact.”

RBKC's council-wide approach to using data for good is exactly what LIFT was designed for, helping local authorities turn insight into action and build stronger futures for their communities.

Over a third of councils use LIFT to turn data into action. Ask to join our next LIFT community workshop and hear how they’re also achieving real results.

Policy in Practice and DebtStream integrate income maximisation into the digital repayment journey

Policy in Practice and DebtStream have created a one stop collections portal that brings income maximisation into the heart of the digital repayment journey. By embedding the GOV.UK recommended Better Off Calculator directly within DebtStream’s self serve flows, customers discover unclaimed support without leaving the portal.

This integrated approach closes the awareness gap that causes many eligible households to miss out on benefits, often worth hundreds of pounds a month. With greater income and clearer guidance, customers can set up affordable, sustainable plans, improving financial wellbeing and reducing repeat arrears.

For creditors, the result is higher engagement, more resilient arrangements and stronger evidence demonstrating compliance with the FCA Consumer Duty. It also enhances brand trust by demonstrating a supportive, outcomes focused approach.

One year on from the initial announcement, live deployments show how combining collections innovation with income maximisation delivers results that are greater than the sum of their parts - fairer for customers and commercially smarter for organisations.

Learn how our one-stop portal supports fairer collections and better outcomes

BBC News features South Cambridgeshire’s data led approach to supporting residents

South Cambridgeshire District Council’s innovative use of data to tackle poverty has been recognised by BBC Look East, which featured the council’s work as the lead story on their evening news programme.

Using Policy in Practice’s LIFT platform, the council identified residents most likely to be missing out on financial support and invited them to targeted community events. These sessions brought together local partners, including Disability Huntingdonshire, to offer one to one guidance on Attendance Allowance and Household Support Fund applications.

Across just four events, the council engaged 118 residents, distributed over £7,000 in immediate support, and identified nearly £700,000 in unclaimed benefits that could make a lasting difference to local people’s financial security.

A special mention goes to interviewee Chris Riches, whose dedication and drive have been instrumental in delivering this work and raising awareness of its impact. Chris has championed a proactive, data led approach within the council, demonstrating what can be achieved when insight meets commitment.

As our founder Deven Ghelani told the BBC, this initiative shows both the monetary and dignity value of using data for good, helping residents access the support they deserve.

Find out how LIFT can help your council target support and achieve similar results

Celebrating our clients’ success at the IRRV Awards

We were delighted to see so many of our clients recognised at this year’s IRRV Performance Awards, celebrating innovation and impact across local government and utilities.

Folkestone & Hythe District Council took home the Social Inclusion Award, recognising their continued dedication to improving residents’ lives

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils with Thames Water received a commendation for Excellence in Partnership Working, highlighting the strength of collaboration across sectors

Our other fantastic finalists included South Cambridgeshire (Social Inclusion), South Norfolk & Broadland (Most Improved Team and Social Inclusion), Medway (Benefit Team of the Year), and York (Social Inclusion)

A huge congratulations to all our clients for your achievements. We’re proud that our solutions could play a part in your success. See policyinpractice.co.uk/LIFT

Inspire others this festive period

Share your 2025 success story and win £50 for your favourite charity this Christmas.

Our much loved 12 Days of Christmas campaign celebrates the amazing impact our clients have made this year across local government, housing, finance, utilities, blue lights and advice sectors.

Tell us how you’ve made a difference in 2025, whether by reducing arrears, helping people into work, boosting incomes, creating organisational efficiencies or changing lives in another way.

More and more inspiring stories are submitted every year, so if yours isn’t featured this Christmas, don't worry. We’ll showcase your successes in the new year so your achievements still shine.

Please submit your story by Friday 14 November and help inspire others this Christmas.

PiP-athon 2025: Harnessing data and AI for impactful solutions

This month we held our latest PiP-athon, a 48 hour sprint designed to spark creativity and collaboration across our engineering team. From planes, trains and automobiles, teams across the country came together to bring innovative ideas to life.

Over two days, four proof of concept projects were built, each exploring new ways to use data and AI to drive real world impact. The winning team created a prototype that provides a portal into our data, helping staff across the business get faster, clearer insights into policy and poverty.

The lessons and outputs from the PiP-athon will feed directly into our upcoming product plans as we continue to explore how data and AI can turn complexity into clarity.

We’re on the move

This November, we’re moving into a new office space as a reflection of our growth as an organisation. Our team has expanded, and our new home at Temple Chambers will give us the space, facilities and environment to do even more for the people we serve.

We’ll be just a short trip away from the heart of Westminster. Our new location keeps us well connected to decision makers and partners, while giving us a modern, welcoming base to continue our work. We look forward to welcoming you soon, contact us to pay a visit to our new home.

Meet us at sector events this November

We're out and about again in November where we’ll be sharing how our solutions are helping organisations to tackle debt, boost income and support households while closing the unclaimed support gap. We’re looking forward to connecting with you at the following events:

4 Nov: Fair4All conference, London
6 Nov: Personal Insolvency Conference (IPA), Manchester
11-12 Nov: NHS Providers conference, Manchester
13 Nov: MALG Conference, Leeds
16-18 Nov: CCN conference, Marlow
18 Nov: iNetwork conference, Manchester
16-18 Nov: ADR Conference, Cardiff
25 Nov: ERSA Conference and Employability Awards, London
26-28 Nov: National Children and Adult Services Conference, Bournemouth

Come and say hello, hear about our latest innovations including Campaign Manager and Apply Once, and explore how we can help you deliver better outcomes for customers.

To arrange a meeting with our team at these events email hello@policyinpractice.co.uk

Safeguarding in focus: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Policy in Practice is closely monitoring the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is awaiting report stage in the House of Lords.

One proposed amendment under debate would abolish the common law defence of reasonable punishment in relation to corporal punishment of a child in England.

A recent survey by the NSPCC found that almost three quarters (71%) of 3,500 adults in England consider physical punishment as a form of discipline unacceptable, highlighting how current legislation is out of step with public attitudes. In Scotland and Wales, physical punishment of children was made illegal in 2020 and 2022, respectively, giving children the same legal protection from assault as adults.

Policy in Practice continues to follow the progress of this amendment, which would represent a significant step forward for children’s rights in England.