The continuing rise in the cost of living calls for effective ways to identify households most at risk of falling into food and fuel poverty.
Modelling increased fuel costs and inflation together with the impact of support packages on low income households is one way to identify the households that will be most in need as costs rise.
September’s administrative data on low income households in 40 local authorities can be used to forecast how low income households will cope this winter.
One council has adopted this pioneering approach to tackling the cost of living crisis. It is using administrative data to project the impact of the rising costs on households’ financial resilience. The insights gained help the allocation of cost of living support packages and evaluation of targets.
Listen back to learn about
- Forecasting the impact of the Energy Price Guarantee, May 2022 Cost of Living Support, and benefits uprating
- How the Energy Price Cap, energy efficiency and property characteristics impact monthly energy bills
- Case study: Gravesham’s use of data to target discretionary support
With guest speaker Pat Knight, Service Manager (Revenues and Benefits), Gravesham Borough Council
View the webinar
There are positive steps that you can take to help households to maximise their income and take up some of the £19 billion of support that's left each year. Through data people can access support that they didn't know about and make a tangible difference to put food on the table or sleep in a warm home.
Just 40% of homes in England have an EPC rating of C or above and this varies greatly across regions. The only way to prevent future energy crises is to make homes more energy efficient. We are adding EPC data to the LIFT platform to help local authorities find households that are less energy-efficient and target support to them.
We wanted to improve the recovery of council tax collection, maximise the number of people claiming council tax reduction and reduce the council tax arrears. Now, rather than focusing on collections, we first see if we have awarded everything possible. For example, one of the changes we made was to treat a claim for Universal Credit as a claim for council tax reduction as well.