12 Days of Christmas

As 2025 comes to a close, I want to take a moment to recognise the extraordinary impact our clients, partners and team have achieved together this year. Your commitment has helped drive another year of meaningful change for thousands of people whose lives have been directly improved.

This year’s Missing Out 2025 report showed both the scale of unmet need and the momentum we are building together. We’ve seen greater progress in the last 12 months than in the previous decade.

Councils, housing providers, utilities and financial institutions are using data more effectively, designing more efficient services and running campaigns that connect people to the support they’re missing. You are showing, with evidence, that benefit take up work isn’t just socially impactful, it’s fiscally responsible.

Our 12 Days of Christmas stories capture this beautifully. Behind every dataset is a person whose life has changed:

“I turned on the heating for the first time and felt an awful lot better. I don’t need to worry about turning it on anymore.”

“I can now afford to go to my son’s wedding.”

“You have been a lifeline to me and my son on a very difficult subject. Your patience and kindness have not been wasted on me.”

“Mum has been awarded both Attendance Allowance and extra Pension Credit.”

“I’ve never been someone to ask for help, and honestly, if the Council hadn’t reached out, I don’t think I ever would’ve applied. It’s made a world of difference.”

“Getting Pension Credit has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. I can afford the basics now without living in fear of the next bill.”

“It really will make all the difference. I’ve been going without things to try and pay for their meals. I’ve gone without things like clothing and haircuts because there just wasn’t enough money that month. It’s not just the school meals. It helps with everything.”

These voices remind us why the work matters.

This month, we celebrated clients who secured millions in support for households; utilities making bills fairer; financial institutions tackling digital exclusion, and councils using their data to distribute discretionary grants accurately and reach vulnerable families early.

Yet more than £24 billion still goes unclaimed each year, though benefit take up is only part of the story. The work we do together is also reducing arrears, preventing homelessness, improving Council Tax Support, strengthening safeguarding, and helping organisations do more with less. In a year of real financial pressure, our partners have used our technology to improve service delivery, recover debt, cut administrative burden and build long term resilience for residents and customers.

Across sectors, we’ve seen innovation turn into action:

• Councils have designed simpler, fairer models of support
• Housing providers have embedded income maximisation throughout the customer journey
• Utilities have automated social tariff assessments
• Financial providers are offering more inclusive support
• Financial providers are offering more inclusive support
• Safeguarding partners are making quicker, better-informed decisions

And together, we have unlocked vital support for households at a time when they needed it most.

Strengthening our products to meet rising demand

To support this shift, we continued to strengthen our Better Off Platform – the combined suite behind all our tools. This year we:

• Expanded Apply Once, enabling residents to apply for multiple schemes in a single, streamlined journey
• Introduced Campaign Manager in LIFT, automating the delivery of take up campaigns and tracking their outcomes
• Enhanced our Better Off Calculator, improving ease of use for advisers and the public, and integrating social tariffs and other schemes
• Supported wider adoption of MAST, helping safeguarding partners share insight securely to act earlier
• Worked with more councils to model and redesign fair, financially sustainable Council Tax Support schemes

Looking ahead to 2026

We know the challenges remain significant. Local government finances are under extreme pressure, the cost of living crisis continues to affect millions of us, and more households are becoming newly eligible for support but not accessing it.

Yet the stories we have shared this December show what is possible when data, compassion and determination come together. They show how quickly lives can change when someone is supported at the right moment.

Thank you for everything you have done in 2025. I am proud of the impact we have created together, and excited for what we will achieve in 2026.

If there is more we can do to help you help others, please contact me directly at deven@policyinpractice.co.uk or the team at hello@policyinpractice.co.uk.

Best wishes, Deven