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In this issue:
- MAST: Our award winning safeguarding tool goes live to great user feedback
- £52 million in Pension Credit distributed via LIFT
- Deven Ghelani to speak at Bright Blue parliamentary event on welfare reform
- We give evidence to the food poverty APPG on the importance of local welfare funding
- I&E tool enables the Better off Calculator to be used by debt advisors
- Webinars:
- View - How to prevent the long-term impacts of short-term debt
- Register - Designing Council Tax Support schemes during a cost of living crisis
- Tell us about your CTR Scheme changes
- Partner with Policy in Practice for GOV.UK Innovation funding competition
- EPC data added to LIFT to help target support for energy grants
- Media appearances
- January's blog posts
- People news and jobs
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MAST: Our award winning safeguarding tool goes live to great user feedback
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MAST reached a huge milestone, the award winning platform joining up safeguarding data across adults and children's social care, NHS, Fire Police services got great feedback from users.
Here's some feedback received so far:
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"I really like the idea that we're not on a fishing trip anymore. We're cutting out a whole swathe of wasted effort." (Police)
"This is a game changer in terms of demand" (Walsall Adults)
"The majority of the time things get closed down with the Police but it takes us 45 minutes to find that out... whereas if we already knew it had not gone to any of the investigative teams then at least we would know that from the beginning". (Walsall Adults)
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| £52 million in Pension Credit distributed via LIFT
LIFT has now generated £52 million in confirmed Pension Credit claims so far this year. Huge congratulations to all authorities for their hard work running successful
campaigns. An average of £2700 has been awarded to over 19,000 pensioner households across 33 councils.
Our next step is a direct Pension Credit campaign, with Policy in Practice sending out letters to all eligible pensioner households automatically through LIFT, detailing how they can apply for, and start claiming, Pension Credit. Over 5,700 letters are being sent out for a campaign funded by the Greater London Authority, supported by Age UK, across 22 boroughs all delivered by Policy in Practice.
Pension Credit is one of the most underclaimed benefits, we expect that this partnership will boost take-up for at least 1,700 pensioner households, with a lifetime value of over £30m.
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| Deven Ghelani, Director of Policy in Practice, said:
“We are very proud to be a part of this campaign, using the power of data to change people’s lives. It is great that the Mayor of London and London Councils have taken this joint approach, backed by Age UK, to make a difference to their older residents as they grapple with the cost of living crisis.
“With £19 billion of benefits remaining unclaimed nationally each year, the scaling up by London of a data-driven, targeted communications campaign for Pension Credit is a great start. It is an example of how councils across the country can use their data to improve the financial resilience of their residents.”
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Deven Ghelani to speak at Bright Blue parliamentary event on welfare reformThis month, Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions gave the keynote speech at the Centre for Social
Justice (CSJ). Here he laid out Labour’s plan to reform support for those out of work and help people facing ill-health back into jobs.
The possibility of allowing people to claim benefits for sickness and disability while also working is one proposed option. The Bright Blue think tank listed this in a recent report and recommended a minimum income for households to tackle the cost of living.
Deven Ghelani is speaking at a Bright Blue parliamentary event on 6th February to share Policy in Practice research on how the welfare system could be reformed.
Read Tackling economic inactivity amongst the UK working age adults
Attend Building up: The future of social security
on Monday 6 February
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We give evidence to the food poverty APPG on the importance of local welfare fundingZoe Charlesworth gave evidence from our research on the role of Local Welfare Assistance (LWA) to the APPG on Ending the Need for Food Banks this month. Our analysis for London Councils focused on the importance of LWA and found that LWA schemes are no longer just for emergencies; they help people to eat and heat their homes. The report demonstrates the effectiveness of local welfare in preventing financial hardship and makes a strong case for dedicated funding. We find that nearly a third of low-income households won't have enough income to cover costs in April. It is therefore promising that the committee is looking into how emergency support is being delivered. There are many
recommendations in the report on how London councils can coordinate their local welfare schemes designs to maximise help to residents. Policy in Practice is now working on sharing these insights and suggestions more widely. Read Evaluation of Local Welfare Assistance research findings
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| I&E tool enables the Better off Calculator to be used by debt advisors
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We worked closely with Durham Council to update their debt section of the tool for income and expenditure (I&E) assessments, and these changes have now been rolled out to all users. Calculator users can now: - Enter one debt at a time with a drop down list of debt types
- Enter creditor information
and repayment status, essential for running I&E assessments
- Categorise debts priority or non-priority debts which feed into the smart budget
Find out more about the Better Off Calculator |
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Webinar recap: How to prevent the long-term impacts of short-term debtThe cost of living crisis prompted an increase in the number of clients supported by debt advice charities. The ONS reported that of the 94% of adults who saw an increase in their cost of living in November 2022, 14% said they used more credit than usual to cope. The government
has provided billions of pounds of additional support yet £19 billion of existing benefits is unclaimed every year. With this in mind, we looked at what frontline organisations can be doing differently to get help to people early enough to avoid crisis down the line. Listen back to learn about - Findings from new research on journeys into problem debt
- Four council-led interventions that can help
- Understanding illegal money lending in England
- Latest statistics about victims and loan sharks
- The importance of early interventions and work that Policy in Practice is doing to help
Listen back here
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Free webinar: Designing Council Tax Support schemes during a cost of living crisisWednesday 22 February from 10:30 to 11:45 AM
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.
Our guest speaker, Corin Hammersley from the Royal Borough of Greenwich, will share 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.
We will also show how modelling provides vital insights into the cost and impact on residents of new schemes, as well as the consequences of doing nothing.
Join the webinar to learn:
- Current national trends in CTS scheme design
- How the level of support can be maintained, or even increased, in the context of the cost of living crisis and stretched council budgets
- The administrative challenges councils face and how can these be overcome through automation
- How modelling can help you design your CTS scheme
Register here even if you can't make the date to automatically receive the slides and recording.
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| Tell us about your CTR Scheme changes
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Thank you to everyone who has filled out our quick survey on CTR Scheme updates for this year. We include all schemes throughout England, the only Calculator to do this, and we use these updates so that all users get the most up-to-date information on CTR schemes in their area. If you haven’t had a chance to fill in the survey you still have time. Alternatively, you can send us an email at hello@policyinpractice.co.uk |
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Partner with Policy in Practice for GOV.UK Innovation funding competitionInnovate UK is running a funding competition for local authorities to help develop net zero delivery plans, improve delivery pathways and enable adoption at scale of innovative products and services.
We would like to put forward a bid using LIFT to improve the targeting of energy efficiency measures.
If you would be interested in having your local authority join with Policy in Practice for the submission, please get in touch on hello@policyinpractice.co.uk by Friday 17 February.
Find out more information on the competition here
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EPC data added to LIFT to help target support for energy grants
We’re introducing Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data into LIFT. This can help local authorities to apply for energy grants and target support. LIFT clients can identify those in energy-inefficient homes and those in fuel poverty who could make long-term financial savings.
EPC data can be used to give a deeper understanding of energy efficiency levels across the region, and therefore typical energy costs for households. It can also cross-reference EPC data against scheme eligibility
criteria to identify households who are eligible for grants and missing out.
Find out more about how the analysis of EPC and administrative data in LIFT works
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| Policy in Practice research shows key drivers behind findings in Civitas report
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Civitas released a report this month showing that over half of households in the UK receive more from the state than they pay back into it. Deven Ghelani spoke about the findings on GB News and LBC. Highlighting the ageing population and people with long-term illness as drivers behind the figures, Deven drew attention to the low unemployment rate in the UK, showing that most of those who are able to work are doing so. Watch Deven on GB News
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| Deven Ghelani answers caller questions on LBC
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Deven answered caller questions on a live phone-in with Shelagh Fogerty on LBC radio, after ministers suggested that mums and their partners should return to work in order to grow the economy. Queries included an employer having problems getting mums to do overtime hours because they feared losing their Universal Credit, and a mother who is struggling with childcare costs. Listen to Deven on LBC Radio |
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January's blog posts
How one council identified three preventative ways to support residents in debt
Read new analysis on how to best support residents in debt. Three findings from our work with one London Borough can be adopted elsewhere.
Read the blog post
Tackling economic inactivity amongst the UK’s working age adults
We critique recent policy announcements by Labour and the government on tackling economic inactivity, identifying common ground.
Read the blog post
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| People news and jobs
We say hello and extend a very warm welcome to Hoden Mocow who has joined us as a Policy and Data Analyst.
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