Nationwide unlocks over £1.2m in 4 weeks plus our work on disability benefit reforms, str onger tenancies, lower water bills and safeguarding

Nationwide Building Society partnership unlocks over £1.2 million in unclaimed benefits in just 4 weeks

A new partnership between Nationwide Building Society and Policy in Practice is already delivering big results, helping over 2,200 households access more than £1.2 million in unclaimed support in just four weeks.

The initiative marks a major step forward in inclusive customer support. Nationwide has become the first UK financial provider to launch a free telephone based benefits calculator, using Policy in Practice’s award winning Better Off Calculator.

This combined service tackles three core barriers that stop people from getting the help they’re entitled to:

Awareness: Many people don’t realise they’re eligible
Complexity: The process can be confusing and overwhelming
Stigma: A belief that benefits are only for those out of work, despite 40% of UC claimants being employed

“Millions of people across the UK are missing out on vital financial support they are entitled to simply because the system is too complex to understand and access,” said Kathryn Townsend, Head of Customer Vulnerability & Accessibility at Nationwide. “Our partnership with Policy in Practice means more people, including those who perhaps can’t or prefer not to use digital services, can get the help they need to increase their income. By offering the choice of an online process and a telephone call, we are hopefully making what can be a daunting and confusing experience that little bit simpler.”

With the average eligible household identified as missing out on £554 per month, the value is significant, roughly equivalent to a typical household’s monthly energy, council tax and broadband bills combined.

“Every year £23 billion in benefits and support goes unclaimed because people don't know what they're eligible for, or they struggle to access online services,” said Deven Ghelani, Director and Founder of Policy in Practice

Nationwide is now offering the service to everyone, not just its own customers, and is calling for government action to simplify access to unclaimed support.

See the full story at policyinpractice.co.uk. Want to offer this to your customers? Contact us on 0330 088 9242 or book a call here.

Disability benefits reform: What councils need to know now

“If you take money away from the poorest people, it is going to cost you more elsewhere, such as social care and people not being able to live independently.”

Deven Ghelani speaking on BBC Radio Scotland this month

As the government moves ahead with disability benefit reforms, public services face difficult choices. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Deven Ghelani warned that even with recent concessions, major changes, particularly to the health element of Universal Credit, could deepen hardship and increase pressure on local services.

Read our latest update on disability benefit reforms

Join our August webinar on disability benefit reforms to learn:

What’s changing with disability benefits and why it matters
Where the biggest local impacts will be felt, including in Scotland
How to use data to target support and reduce demand on services

Guest speakers

Jonathan Portes, a Professor at Kings College London and former Chief Economist at DWP, will discuss past efforts to support people with disabilities into work, and what he would like to see trialled by local areas
Zoe Tyndall, Camden Council, will share results from a data led employment support pilot run by Camden Council, widely referenced by other local areas

Join our August webinar: Understanding the impact of disability benefit reforms on local authorities

New in Better Off Calculator: Affordability assessments for housing providers

The affordability assessment feature in the Better Off Calculator helps housing providers quickly determine whether a property is financially suitable for a prospective or current tenant, based on their own criteria.

Instead of relying on spreadsheets and manual processes, this built in tool offers an integrated rating system to show affordability at a glance. It also recommends follow up actions and highlights where additional benefits could be claimed to improve a tenant’s financial position.

Listen back to Ed McNamara explaining how this feature was developed for housing provider Jigsaw Homes Group. They had found affordability checks time consuming and disconnected from benefit assessments.

By embedding everything from lettings forms and affordability checks to income and expenditure and benefits calculations into the Better Off Calculator, duplication is removed and a joined up, preventative approach to sustaining tenancies is achieved. It gives income teams up to date cases at their fingertips, reducing crisis response time and embedding income maximisation across the full lettings and collections journey.

Ask us to add affordability assessments to your Better Off Calculator.

🔍 What is the Better Off Calculator?

The Better Off Calculator helps people see what support they can claim, quickly and clearly. Used by advisors and available for self serve, it simplifies complex benefits to maximise income and improve financial resilience. Organisations also use it to engage more people, reduce arrears, and save time and money. Built with client feedback, it includes budgeting, scenario tools and local scheme integration.

Learn more or book a call to see the Better Off Calculator in action

Help shape the future of LIFT: More datasets, better insights

As we look ahead to the next generation of LIFT, we're excited to share some of the new datasets under consideration. These are designed to give local authorities even deeper, more actionable insights into vulnerability and financial resilience.

Thanks to feedback from our clients, we’re exploring new data sources that could make LIFT even more powerful. These include:

Council Tax base and arrears
Universal Credit claim trends and breakdowns
Social rent arrears
Children’s Services and Adult Social Care debt
Food bank usage data
Credit reference agency data

These additional datasets help councils move beyond understanding financial vulnerability to predicting it, targeting support, and acting with greater precision.

Whether you’re already using LIFT or exploring how to deepen your use of data to support residents, we’d love your input.

If you’re interested in adding any of these datasets or have others in mind that would benefit your teams, please speak with your Client Services Manager or contact us. Your feedback helps shape what’s next.

🔍 What is LIFT?

LIFT is our analytics platform that helps councils provide timely and effective support to people who need it most, improving outcomes for low income families. By identifying residents who may be missing out on support, in debt or at risk of homelessness, LIFT enables councils to take early, targeted action. It brings together data from multiple sources, helping local authorities to allocate resources more effectively and track the impact of their interventions over time.

Learn more or book a call to see LIFT in action

Closing the disability employment gap: what needs to change

At this month’s Employment and Skills Convention 2025, Deven Ghelani, joined an expert panel exploring one of the UK’s most pressing challenges: “Closing the disability employment gap: how can we make a step change in opportunity?”

With just over half of disabled people in work, compared to over 80% of non-disabled people, progress on inclusion is vital if the government is to meet its 80% employment target. The session reflected on the Government’s Pathways to Work Green Paper and asked how policy, data, and design can help build a system that focuses on what people can do.

Deven highlighted that current reforms to disability and employment policy must be designed to work hand in hand. Without joined up thinking between policy, data and delivery, support risks falling short and missing the people who need it most.

He also spotlighted the power of data led insight at the local level. Using our LIFT platform, local authorities can pinpoint which residents are most likely to be impacted by upcoming LCWRA and PIP reforms, and act early to support them.

“Some areas have taken a muted approach simply because they don’t know this data exists. In places like Camden, we’re already helping to shape responses based on clear insight.”

The panel also discussed the importance of helping people see how they’re better off in work. Our Better Off Calculator is already doing just that, equipping advisors to give clear, personalised information and hands on support.

Finally, Deven encouraged local areas to track the impact of their efforts over time, closing the feedback loop between intervention and outcome.

Join our August webinar: Understanding the impact of disability benefits reforms on local authorities

MAST: Making vulnerability visible in safeguarding in West Glamorgan

Safeguarding failures are often blamed on poor information sharing, but the real issue is visibility.

“With so many systems, nobody knows who’s got what. That’s what MAST solves,” says Chris Frey-Davies, Principal Officer for Safeguarding at Neath Port Talbot. “Instead of writing more policies, we need to make vulnerability visible.”

Our MAST (Multi Agency Safeguarding Tracker) platform is designed to do just that. By connecting data from local government, NHS, police, fire and rescue and more, MAST provides real time insight into where vulnerable people are known to services, and where support may be slipping through the cracks.

In a recent webinar, available on demand, colleagues from Swansea and Neath Port Talbot shared how MAST is reshaping safeguarding practice across West Glamorgan.

“We looked at one particular postcode over 12 months and found 136 people known to services in that year,” said Kelli Richards, Principal Officer of Early Help in Swansea. “That’s the power of being able to give insight from the hundreds of thousands of records that sit within MAST.”

Every night, MAST brings together activity across agencies, flagging open cases with new updates and surfacing high priority individuals in real time.

As safeguarding challenges grow, MAST shows how automation can turn fragmented data into joined up, effective support.

Watch the webinar on demand here