The Guinness Partnership has worked hard in 2021 to identify those who may not be claiming all of the benefits they are eligible to receive. The team has had huge success in maximising tenants’ income, helping one tenant to receive as much as £13,800 in backdated Severe Disability Payments.
The Guinness Partnership’s good news story of 2021
We were contacted by a new tenant who wanted help with a Housing Benefit claim. She lived alone without a carer and was receiving PIP and ESA. The adviser completed a benefit assessment on the Better Off Calculator and recognised she was not getting Severe Disability Premium (SDP).
The tenant started to receive the premium after we notified DWP of this error but originally DWP did not backdate the award. We successfully challenged this and our tenant was awarded a backdate going back to 2017. This amounted to a huge total of £13,800 in backdated payments. The customer has also had an extra £67.30 every week going forwards, helping to strengthen their tenant’s financial resilience for the future.
Sue Thomas, Customer Support Officer, The Guinness Partnership
Learn more about The Guinness Partnership’s good news story
Over the past year there have been a number of different policy changes that have seen the benefit amounts change quickly overnight. This was a challenge as we had had to learn new rules quickly and apply them to cases to ensure none of our tenants slipped through the net.
The Better Off Calculator was particularly helpful with this challenge as the engine is updated with each new policy change. This meant that we could easily see how our tenant’s benefit entitlement changed, making it easy to give customers accurate information.
The number of referrals we have been able to make over the past year with the Better Off Calculator has been a huge success for our team. We have identified a vast number of customers not receiving the correct amount of benefits and have used the calculator for over 12,000 referrals this year. The Better Off Calculator has proved to be a vital tool for our team.
0
referrals supported by the calculator
0
in backdated payments to one tenant
We have used the budgeting calculator for several years. We use it seamlessly across 3 large departments and it has helped improve our customers' experience. Customers give us their information once making conversations easier and helps us to have all the information we need to help. We have helped lots of customers claim benefits they did not know they are entitled to and have always found policy in practice support if we have any queries to be impeccable.