Ensuring households impacted by the benefit cap are supported has been a key focus for us this year. By utilising our administrative data via the LIFT platform, we have been able to accurately identify households eligible for Discretionary Housing Payments and quickly provide them with support.

"There's a drive to do this because it's a bit like early intervention; if you can get someone onto CTR you're improving their wellbeing, streamlining the process for yourself, so saving resource, but saving at the back end as well because there'll be less to collect, lower collection costs and you're helping people build their financial resilience, build their wellbeing. It just makes a lot of sense."

"In 2026, going into 2027, there's really a changing landscape of how local authorities should be designing their CTR schemes. There's not just the budgetary pressures anymore, there's policy changes, judicial reviews to take into account and there's lots more guidance to take into account when you're designing your scheme."