Research for London Councils highlights the impact of Local Welfare Assistance, Integrate our Better Off API to make income maximisation part of BAU and more

In this issue:

New research shows Local Welfare Assistance (LWA) is an effective low cost intervention
API integrations with Beam and Anglian Water make income maximisation part of their core offer
Deven Ghelani talks to collections officers on how to support people through the cost of living crisis
Multi Agency Safeguarding Tracker (MAST) shortlisted for two more awards
Webinars:

View - Designing Council Tax Support schemes during a cost of living crisis
Register - How councils are using data to build the best localities model

Evidence to Universal Credit APPG highlights inadequate income for households on benefits
February's blog posts
People news and jobs

London Councils commissioned Policy in Practice to assess the effectiveness of local welfare assistance (LWA) schemes across London boroughs. LWA provides emergency financial support to households experiencing high levels of financial hardship.

Our research demonstrated the effectiveness of local welfare in preventing financial hardship, and that the amount needed to keep people out of crisis is relatively low.

Following publication of our report, Zoe Charlesworth, Associate Policy and Research Lead, led the discussion in an online event on the future of LWA schemes.

We have partnered with Beam, a social enterprise in the financial sector, to support their ability to offer their recipients a variety of help.

Beam provide support for those who are homeless or facing homelessness using the Better Off Calculator to seamlessly integrate into their processes via an API. Now in testing, they can offer:

Financial support such as signposting to the benefits they could access
Employment support by ensuring that a user’s employment is financially viable
Housing support by tracking affordability and with the option to manage bills

We have also worked with Anglian Water to create a new ‘apply once’ process via the Better Off Calculator on the GOV.UK website.

The API allows a Better Off Calculator user on GOV.UK to seamlessly apply directly to Anglian Water’s social tariff scheme at the same time as completing a benefits check.

This removes the need to answer more application questions on the Anglian Water website.

The integrated journey can be completed easily by customers with two clicks and with only a few additional questions within the Better Off Calculator.

Webinar recap: Designing Council Tax Support schemes during a cost of living crisis

Council Tax Support schemes are one of the most powerful ways that councils can address poverty and debt. The best schemes can provide meaningful support to vulnerable residents.

This webinar discussed the design of Council Tax support schemes in the context of the cost of living crisis, and why now is the time to redesign your scheme.

Our guest speaker, Corin Hammersley from the Royal Borough of Greenwich, shared how Greenwich has used modelling to design a new scheme with a simple but novel approach to increasing support for employed households, whilst remaining cost neutral.

Listen back to learn about

The importance of council tax support schemes in a cost of living crisis
The evolution of the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s CTR scheme, and what they considered when designing their latest scheme
How to (re-)design your own CTR scheme to reduce costs, stay generous and interact with Universal Credit

Listen back here

Free webinar: How councils are using data to build the best localities model
Wednesday 29 March from 10:30 to 11:45 AM

Building an efficient and effective poverty cost avoidance strategy is essential against the backdrop of the current cost of living crisis. Previous forecasting analysis shows that on average, 1 in 10 households on the lowest incomes will not have enough money to cover essential costs like food, water, and clothing.

This webinar will discuss how councils can help their residents using administrative data to build their best localities model.

Our guest speaker from a local authority will share how they used administrative data to identify households in relative and fuel poverty, households in debt and arrears, carers, primary and secondary school households, disabled households, and single households over 85. The insights from their analysis informed the rollout of warm spaces and their poverty cost-avoidance strategies.

In this webinar you will learn:

The forecasted impact of the 2023 Spring Budget on low-income households across the UK, and the importance of developing poverty cost avoidance strategies
How to use data to geographically map the needs of residents and develop an outreach plan engaging these households around attending the most useful and accessible surgeries, community hubs, and support agencies
How to identify the best wards for the rollout of community hubs, warm spaces, and surgeries using administrative data

Evidence to Universal Credit APPG highlights inadequate income for households on benefits

This month we gave written evidence to the Universal Credit APPG looking at the adequacy of Social Security.

Our evidence shows that the current Social Security system leaves 28% of households on benefits without adequate income to cover bills.

We recommended that benefits be uprated part way through the year if CPI inflation rises 4% above the level at the previous uprating. This would protect low-income households from sudden cost of living increases that push them into poverty.

February's blog posts

Universal Credit’s managed migration discovery phase: lessons and opportunities
We look at DWPs Universal Credit managed migration discovery phase report and outline lessons and opportunities for wider rollout
Read the blog post

Targeting support to households hit by high energy bills
Targeting support to households is needed to combat the soaring energy prices that are affecting households differently
Read the blog post

Is now the time for a minimum income for benefit recipients?
We spoke on a panel discussing Bright Blue’s new report proposing a minimum income for benefit recipients plus other reforms
Read the blog post