St Helens’ data driven approach achieves over £1.3 million impact across four teams

St Helens faces multiple, overlapping forms of deprivation, from youth unemployment and families at risk of eviction, to households living in fuel poverty and pensioners struggling with the rising cost of living. The borough ranks 68th most deprived in England, with around 43% of residents living in the 20% most deprived areas, intensifying demand on welfare, housing and public health support.

Yet with limited visibility across fragmented systems, stretched safety nets, and teams working in silos, the council lacked a clear way to identify and respond to these overlapping vulnerabilities

The council also faces rising youth vulnerability that increases tenancy risk and pressures on household finances. In 2024/25 the percentage of 16 to 17 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEETs) in St Helens rose to 7.9%, or 330 young people.

Household energy affordability is a persistent issue. St Helens Borough Council has an Affordable Warmth & Welfare Advice Team and an active programme to improve EPC rated homes, reflecting the scale of residents living in inefficient properties and at risk of fuel poverty, pressure that spills into rent arrears and wider financial hardship.

At the same time, the council must target finite local safety net funds like the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments to those most likely to benefit. St Helens continues to operate and publicise HSF to cover food, fuel and essential bills, but demand outstrips budget and requires sharper prioritisation. DHPs also need careful case finding to maximise tenancy sustainment.

Underclaiming of Pension Credit remains substantial, with £1.6 billion going unclaimed nationwide. This means that many pensioners on low incomes also miss linked entitlements such as free TV licences, something that local authorities are uniquely positioned to tackle.

Like many councils, St Helens’ frontline teams operate across multiple systems and datasets, which can obscure a “single view of debt” and make it harder to spot households with multiple arrears and low affordability. This limits the precision of early intervention and targeting of support.

Central guidance and sector evidence emphasise the need for better data sharing and integrated debt insight to identify vulnerability earlier and intervene more effectively.

To overcome these challenges, St Helens Borough Council invested in Policy in Practice’s Better Off Platform.

The platform’s Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) and Better Off Calculator give a clear, household level view of income, debt, housing circumstances and benefit eligibility. Crucially, they bring together fragmented datasets into one platform, enabling multiple teams to identify hidden vulnerabilities, target support more effectively and measure the impact of interventions.

Revenues and Benefits

The team used LIFT to improve Discretionary Housing Payment allocation, identifying households in arrears with low affordability who had not previously received a DHP. They also used the platform to drive benefit maximisation, running a Pension Credit take up campaign that ensured more pensioners accessed their entitlement and grew their financial strength.

Housing and Homelessness 

Using LIFT to get visibility into households with NEETs and in arrears, the housing team launched a targeted prevention campaign. This joined up use of LIFT helped them intervene earlier to prevent evictions and connect families to employment and budgeting support to strengthen tenancies.

Public Health

Inspired by results in other boroughs, the public health team used LIFT to increase take up of the Healthy Start scheme, identifying eligible families with children under four. By using LIFT to run targeted digital outreach, they increased take up of the support and delivered extra income to vulnerable families.

Affordable Warmth

By combining EPC ratings with LIFT’s policy engine, the energy team gained a single view of the households that were both on a low income and living in inefficient homes. This insight enabled collaboration with Energy Projects Plus to channel warm homes packs and grants to over 2,000 households in fuel poverty.

In each campaign the teams also included links or QR codes to the Better Off Calculator so households could find and apply for all the support they were eligible for.

By embedding the Better Off Platform across four departments, St Helens has shown how a shared evidence base can break down silos, stretch finite local safety nets further, and deliver more coordinated, preventative support to residents.

By embedding LIFT and the Better Off Calculator across four departments, St Helens not only identified hidden vulnerability but also translated that insight into tangible financial and social impact for residents.

Revenues and Benefits

•  Pension Credit take up campaign
  • £150,500 secured for 41 pensioner households through new and backdated claims, including Winter Fuel Payments
  • Average gain: £2,844 per household annually
  • Projected lifetime value of awards: over £1.1 million
• DHP allocation campaign
  • Improved targeting helped sustain tenancies for households in arrears
• Household Support Fund campaign
  • £30,000 allocated to hundreds of pensioners who would have missed out due to changes in Winter Fuel Payments
  • Free School Meal vouchers distributed to eligible families

Housing and Homelessness

• NEET prevention campaign
  • 50 households with arrears and NEETs targeted with bespoke outreach
  • 3 households received wraparound employment and budgeting support, helping prevent eviction
• Partnership working strengthened with Torus Housing

Public Health

• Healthy Start campaign
• • Identified 700 eligible households
  • Take up grew by 2.9% locally, compared to a 1.4% decrease in non participating boroughs in the Liverpool area
  • Delivered £15,830 to 44 households in the first year, with potential lifetime impact exceeding £18,750 if claims continue until children turn four

Affordable Warmth

• Fuel poverty action campaign
• • Over 2,000 households identified as on a low income and in inefficient homes
  • Partnership with Public Health directed ‘Be Winter Ready’ Advice packs to those most in need
• Community engagement: Energy roadshows reached residents at risk of fuel poverty

At the time of writing, over 451 residents across St Helens have completed a benefit check using the Better Off Calculator. Thanks to the work of all four teams, residents were able to identify an extra £209,251 in support using the calculator.

By using the Better Off Platform, St Helens unlocked over £1.3 million in projected gains for residents, strengthened tenancy sustainment, increased benefit take up, and targeted energy support more effectively. They have shown that integrated insight can make finite local safety nets go further.

1. Start with one team, scale across many: Revenues and Benefits led the way, but once LIFT demonstrated value, Housing, Public Health and Energy quickly saw how it could advance their own priorities

2. A single data view breaks down silos: Fragmented datasets hide vulnerability. Integrating income, debt, housing and health data gave St Helens a shared evidence base to act on together

3. Targeted outreach makes finite funds go further: Whether allocating DHPs, Household Support Fund, or Warm Home Advice, St Helens showed that better targeting increases impact per pound spent

4. Proactive take up campaigns deliver lasting gains: Campaigns for Pension Credit and Healthy Start take up generated immediate cash into households and also secured long term entitlements that reduce future reliance on crisis funds

5. Partnerships strengthen when grounded in data: Shared insight enabled stronger collaboration with housing providers and energy charities, creating a wider safety net for residents

6. Measure and evidence impact: Being able to track outcomes gives councils the evidence base to demonstrate the value of preventative, data driven approaches

St Helens’ experience shows how councils facing entrenched deprivation, stretched safety nets and fragmented insight can achieve more by acting on a shared, data driven view of residents’ needs.

By starting small and scaling across teams, they unlocked over £1.3 million in projected lifetime gains, strengthened partnerships, and delivered more preventative, coordinated support.

For other local authorities the lesson is clear: integrated insight makes limited resources go further while building resilience for the future.