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Case studies
Read about the challenges we’ve helped our clients overcome. Browse by organisation type or by Policy in Practice product
The differences with this calculator, compared to others on the market, are the income assessment features that give the built in ability to maximise benefits and see the impact of working extra hours. The Universal Credit calendar feature helps us to flex payments based on fluctuating income.
Carole Kenney, Phoenix
I decided Policy in Practice’s Benefit and Budgeting Calculator was something we really needed. It’s enabled us to provide a consistent approach to assessing affordability. We’ve been able to give our customers an online tool which lets them take control of their finances and liaise with us electronically, without the awkwardness or challenge sometimes faced in person.
Carole Kenney, Phoenix
The Benefit and Budgeting Calculator is used as a motivational tool, as what better way is there to show someone how they can improve their situation by entering employment than by seeing that big difference as a financial figure?
Andy Johnson, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
We noticed that we had a fair amount of Discretionary Housing Payment budget left and we used LIFT to target those who should be eligible for a DHP. In November we had 26 applications for DHP with 22 awarded and in December we had 72 applications and 62 awards. So our numbers reflect that the campaign did have an effect with maximizing people’s income.
Nick Harvey, Folkestone and Hythe District Council
One of the first people to record was a household that was identified by the LIFT dashboard at risk. They were behind in their council tax, tax debt, they had liability orders and because of the money that we were able to get for them, that cleared out the old debt and they are now currently paid to debt for 2019 and 2020.
Nick Harvey and Jane Worrell, Folkestone and Hythe District Council
Policy in Practice provided much deeper analysis of our data than we can do in the local authority. Their data is useful, they gave us graphs, highlights and visualisations that brings the messages to life and helps with that decision making.
Sally Sanders, Enfield Council
With LIFT we can see our caseload changing and the different types of households that are being impacted by the economic downturns. This lets us understand how we can reflect our support to match the impact that’s occurring as people move off housing benefit and predominantly onto Universal Credit as they become made redundant. We can be specific with our targeting of resources of help, which we wouldn’t be able to do without the LIFT Dashboard.
Clive Jones, Luton Borough Council
The Benefit and Budgeting Calculator makes it much quicker to do calculations and the tooltips make it easy to use, meaning we only need to train people once. The simplicity of the calculator means that clients can often self serve with little support.
You can explain benefit entitlements but people may not fully grasp the numbers. Having the Benefit and Budgeting Calculator as a mechanism to visually explain the breakdown of entitlements using colour coded charts really helps as it’s something people can relate to.
Grant Bailey, Benefit and Money Advice Team Leader, Cheltenham Borough Homes
The more timely your data, the more powerful it is. If you want to operationalise the information you’re using it’s absolutely critical that the data is timely.
Mark Fowler, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Debt is not about numbers, debt is about people, behaviours and circumstances. We fix debt problems by focusing on people.
Steve Coppard, Cabinet Office
The Benefit and Budgeting Calculator is invaluable to us. We use it to help the homeless find properties that are affordable and to provide the correct advice.
Howard Humphries, Vale of Glamorgan
This is really rich analysis. People can have a tendency to think of that as abstract, a nice-to-have, but it’s really powerful. This is useful for intervening with particular families and households so we can, in theory and in practice, identify those households that are being put at risk of being at risk because of the two child limit or because of the move to Universal Credit.
Haroon Chowdry, Children’s Commissioner’s Office
The reason we were able to get to the scheme that we finally got to was due to the depth of the analysis that was carried out by Policy in Practice on our behalf, and it was a massive help.
Allan Clarke, Barnet Council
Working with Policy in Practice, we have developed the LIFT Dashboard to help us build on our early intervention and prevention approaches enabling proactive targeting that makes a real difference for our residents going through hard times.
Julia Pitt, Croydon Council
The LIFT Dashboard has given us the opportunity to be even more targeted with the take-up work we’re doing and become much smarter in using our resources. Now we’re targeting people who we are much more confident are likely to be missing out on benefits.
Corin Hammersley, Royal Borough of Greenwich
I was attracted to the Benefit and Budgeting Calculator because, as one tool, [it gives us] more consistency. It’s more than just an income and expenditure calculator. I was particularly excited about the better off scenarios [that help us to] work with our customers to show them how their income may improve, or not, depending on how their circumstances change, which links heavily into the Universal Credit calculation. I also like the action plan functionality and the self service option.
Marie Hardeman, The Guinness Partnership
Our biggest concern, as UC rolls out across our large geographic area, was that we have consistency, that our tenants get the same service and also that our advisors have something to fall back on. Policy in Practice gives us that and we can access it from anywhere. The way that Policy in Practices deals with income entitlement, as well as the expenditure of the household, gives our advisors the confidence to have frank and honest discussions with households. Nothing speaks better to our tenants than facts and figures.
Darren Thomas, Grwp Cynefin
The best thing for landlords to do is to have a small team of staff that are dedicated to getting their heads around Universal Credit so that they can give the information to their colleagues. We’ve got 4 to 5 years to get to the end of this exercise, maybe even longer. The important thing is to look at your high risk cases which are your new claims and look to support them. I recommend you do as much as you can to support your tenants because the more you invest now, the more you will actually save by avoiding problems further down the line.
Bill Irvine, Universal Credit Advice & Advocacy
We needed to look at people’s circumstances before giving more flexible payment arrangements which meant we had to make decisions about what people could afford to pay. It was very difficult for staff to be objective and consistent in their approach, which wasn’t very fair for the customer. This also made it difficult for us to explain our reasoning to our clients.
Carole Kenney, Phoenix
We believe that, with the right support, most people can find work and build a career. We chose to work with Policy in Practice because their unparalleled expertise in simplifying the welfare system, as well as their Benefit and Budgeting Calculator, allows us to deliver innovative services to jobseekers across the entire Southern region.
Marise Mackie, Pluss
The LIFT Dashboard has allowed us to draw together previously disparate databases into one easily accessible platform. It maps our data against future predicted changes in inflation of household goods and predicted welfare changes and gives the team an easily accessible platform to see what residents’ situations are.
Chris Parker, Newcastle City Council
We’ve had a LIFT Dashboard for a year and it’s given us the opportunity to be even more specific with the take up work we’re doing and much smarter in using our resources. Now we’re targeting people who we’re much more confident are likely to be missing out on benefits. In the current climate of having to prioritise resources it’s important to show the results we can get and the impact we can make.
Corin Hammersley, Royal Borough of Greenwich
Data is key to enabling us to target those families we know could be hitting crisis point and, without it, we would be working in the dark.
Julia Pitt, Croydon Council
We have recently purchased the discretionary housing payment module from Policy in Practice. We will be expecting our housing and voluntary sector partners to use the calculator when they make the DHP applications. That’s going to really speed up our decision making and be really useful to those partners because they will be able to give people a really good idea of whether they are likely to get something from us.
Ellie Kershaw, Tower Hamlets Council
I’m proud to say that over the past couple of years the team have helped over 4,000 households which we’re able to evidence through the LIFT Dashboard.
Mark Fowler, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
I wanted to illustrate that you can use data for good and that it can make a difference to both the community and the council’s bottom line.
Margaret Gallagher, Haringey Council
The LIFT Dashboard has been invaluable in helping us help our customers to maximise their income and helping the most vulnerable of the people in our district to help themselves. One household identified as at risk by the LIFT dashboard was behind with their council tax and they had liability orders. Because of the money we were able to get for them they cleared out the old debt and they are now paid to debt for 2019 and 2020.
Nick Harvey, Folkestone and Hythe District Council
Data is central to building the case for change. We need to understand how well we’re doing. Policy in Practice is helping us track the outcomes of the people we’ve been working with and compare them to people we’ve not engaged, to evidence the impact of our new approach.
Mark Fowler, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
The analysis has been helpful throughout, in particular for my economic development colleagues in identifying what is on the horizon for the many self-employed and residents we have working in the gig economy.
Jennifer Wynter, London Borough of Hackney
I’m delighted that the Welsh Government has commissioned Policy in Practice to assess the impact of Universal Credit on the Council Tax Reduction Scheme and rent arrears in Wales. Our work will help shape fair policy for people in Wales.
Deven Ghelani, Policy in Practice
Universal Credit roll out meant the cost of administering our council tax support scheme was becoming unsustainable. Policy in Practice’s modelling gave us the data our Members needed to understand the risk of ‘doing nothing’. They were able to agree to an amended scheme that will deliver a cost neutral solution for 2019/20 and minimise the impact on our most vulnerable customers.
Jean Saxby, Hastings Borough Council
We are happy to take part in this important project that tracks the living standards of London’s most vulnerable residents. It’s cost free, sending our data was easy, and we’re learning valuable insights.
Corin Hammersley, Royal Borough of Greenwich
This project has been an opportunity to better understand how our resident’s living standards benchmark against others in London, and get to grips with the drivers behind those differences. It will absolutely inform our poverty tackling strategy going forward.
Ali Ahmed, London Borough of Tower Hamlets
With welfare reform, rising living costs, job insecurity and the roll-out of Universal Credit, it is a time of real change for low-income Londoners. The response from policy makers needs to be right if we are to prevent many thousands of people from being pushed into real financial hardship because of the changes.
This project is unique in the way that it examines household benefits data for over half a million Londoners and allows that data to be linked over time.
Bharat Mehta, Trust for London
20% of the success of this project lies in the data, 80% in the collaboration.
Andrew Collinge, Greater London Authority
The Benefit and Budgeting Calculator is amazing, the frontline volunteers find it really useful. I especially like the calendar that shows claimants who get paid weekly how their monthly Universal Credit payments will be affected over the next 12 months.
Nicky Rees, Peterborough Citizens Advice
We believe that, with the right support, most people can find work and build a career. We chose to work with Policy in Practice because their unparalleled expertise in simplifying the welfare system, as well as their Benefit and Budgeting Calculator, allows us to deliver innovative services to jobseekers across the entire Southern region.
Marise Mackie, Pluss
The Policy in Practice LIFT Dashboard has allowed us to draw together previously disparate databases into one easily accessible platform. It maps our data against future predicted changes in inflation of household goods and predicted welfare changes and gives the team an easily accessible platform to see what residents’ situations are.
Chris Parker, Newcastle City Council
We asked Policy in Practice to help us model our Council Tax Support scheme to give Members confidence that all options to reduce cost while supporting residents were covered. We also wanted to learn from other LAs who’ve already rolled out UC and we knew an external consultant was the best way to do that.
Ian Jones, London Borough of Hackney
The LIFT Dashboard allows Cornwall Council to take a more focused approach to assisting those impacted by welfare reforms, and improves on our previous, slightly scattergun, approach. This extra focus allows us to have a greater impact on vulnerable residents in Cornwall without increasing resources.
Ian Stephens, Cornwall Council
The high-level, astonishing figures in the Policy Impact Analysis report allowed us to highlight the need for continued welfare resources to elected members and other local decision-makers.
Ian Stephens, Cornwall Council
The Motor Neurone Disease Association is the only national charity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland focused on improving access to care, research and campaigning for people living with MND. We want to understand how the introduction of Universal Credit will affect people living with MND, their carers and their families, in order to inform the advocacy, advice and support we provide around this issue. Policy in Practice’s expertise and insight will help us to ensure we can continue to provide the best possible support to all those affected by MND who are impacted by the transition to Universal Credit.
Alex Massey, MNDA
When we were looking at a new benefit calculator, all of our colleagues who tested Policy and Practice’s Benefit and Budgeting Calculator agreed it was the one they wanted to have – the decision was unanimous! It’s ease of use and visual features will make it much easier to help our customers.
Emma Owens, Curo
We believe that, with the right support, most people can find work and build a career. We chose to work with Policy in Practice because their unparelled expertise in simplifying the welfare system, as well as their software, allows us to deliver innovative services to jobseekers across the entire Southern region.
Marise Mackie, Pluss
The Policy in Practice Benefit and Budgeting Calculator is a fantastic asset for our employability teams to use with people on the Work and Health Programme. The support the Policy in Practice team have provided from start to finish has been excellent.
Dominic Mason, Ingeus
Too many communities still suffer from a toxic mix of low pay, insecure work and unemployment. I’m delighted we’re partnering with Policy in Practice to help organisations deliver ever better services that support those who need it most.
Kirsty McHugh, ERSA
I have really enjoyed working with Policy in Practice and the Welfare Reform Club. Policy in Practice have used their strong analytical capability, supplemented by the experience and insight of the Welfare Reform Club, to help Leeds City Council to make better strategic and operational decisions.
Steve Carey, Leeds City Council
Our advisors using the Benefit and Budgeting Calculator were 3 times more effective at getting people into work.
Justine Roberts, Lewisham Council
The software is so user friendly and there are lots of intuitive features in there which mean that an advisor doesn’t have to be a benefits expert.
Jemma Johnstone, Serco
The Children’s Society commissioned Policy in Practice to examine the barriers and solutions to the sharing of data on new born children in local authority areas. Their report delivered practical guidance, based on real-world practice on the ground. Policy in Practice were a pleasure to work with, they were effective, diligent and timely and we would definitely work with them in the future.
Lucy Capron, The Children’s Society
The level of contact and engagement throughout was very impressive, as was the technical ability of the Policy in Practice team.
Steve Carey, Leeds City Council
Any software is only as good as its implementation and the support we’ve had from the team to bed in the new service has been a massive benefit to us.
Jemma Johnstone, Serco
Deven understood what our needs were and listened to how we intended to use the calculator as part of our pilot. His detailed knowledge of the current benefit system and Universal Credit, combined with his technical expertise to build online tools of this type, made him the ideal person to work with.
Justine Roberts, Lewisham Council
Policy in Practice has helped Oxford to develop a budgeting tool that helps our advisors to have better, outcome-focused conversations with our residents. They have made DHP applications more effective, as well as more efficient, reducing the dependence of our residents on discretionary housing payments.
James Pickering, Oxford City Council
We take partnership working very seriously and we only work with organisations who we genuinely feel can make a difference. Policy in Practice very much falls into this category.
We want to move beyond sticking plaster solutions. If we can promote work and independence by understanding who’s impacted by welfare reforms we’ll have more resources available for those who still need our support.
Chris Gibbs, Birmingham City Council
I can’t see whether the people being clobbered by reductions in council tax support or under-occupation are the same people that have been clobbered by other reforms.
Steve Carey, Leeds City Council
Working with Policy in Practice, we have used the information to develop the right tools and new practices to create an early intervention and prevention approach that makes a real difference for our residents going through hard times.
Julia Pitt, Croydon Council
Working with Policy in Practice has been a game changer for us. I have proven that the recommendations you gave in our Policy Impact Analysis have achieved results. You were absolutely on the money.
Denise Sadler, Winchester City Council
Policy in Practice’s detailed and powerful analysis pointed us in the right direction and has been the main driver of the changes we’ve made to our Council Tax Reduction scheme, and the levels of support we’ve been able to build into it.
Clive Jones, Luton Borough Council
Faced with a big funding gap Lambeth must make cost reductions. We commissioned Policy in Practice to give us clear, trustworthy information to evaluate proposed CTS scheme options and consult with affected groups. They’ve done this and more, by also showing us where our welfare support can be best targeted.
Tim Hillman-Brown, Lambeth Council
We needed to put CTRS scheme options together quickly. Policy in Practice won because of their clear and unique approach, experience, detailed understanding of welfare reform impacts and excellent team. The fact that the work has been produced in such a short space of time, and to such high quality standards, is particularly impressive.
Steve Hill, London Borough of Tower Hamlets
At North Hertfordshire District Council we wanted to spend more of our budget on council tax support whilst making sure we factored in the effects of welfare reforms. Policy in Practice helped us to accurately model our best CTRS scheme and establish the ideal level
As well as mitigating against the risks brought by the welfare reforms programme we also saw that there was a big chance to try and do something different, to promote opportunity.
Our tenants are facing increased pressure on their budgets as a result of welfare reforms. The Benefit and Budgeting Calculator allows us to provide better income and budgeting support to our tenants.
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Set up a free trial, request a personalised demo, get a quote or just ask for more details. We'll call you back.