DATA ANALYSIS HELPS GREENWICH IMPROVE FINANCIAL RESILIENCE OF RESIDENTS
The Royal Borough of Greenwich prides itself on the holistic support it provides to residents. Their unique approach includes an in-house Welfare Rights service which, because of the work they do, has access to rich datasets. They use the LIFT Dashboard to analyse this data, it helps Greenwich Council to identify which residents are missing out on benefits.
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.
THE LIFT DASHBOARD IDENTIFIES £20 MILLION OF UNCLAIMED BENEFITS FOR RESIDENTS
The LIFT Dashboard has uncovered significant hidden pockets of poverty in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. By analysing monthly Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction data, the LIFT Dashboard has identified up to £20 million per year of unclaimed benefits across areas such as DWP, Tax Credits, Severe Disability Premiums, Pension Credit, Discretionary Housing Payments and more.
Key benefits for Greenwich
FOODBANK USAGE BUCKED THE TREND
Greenwich’s foodbank usage saw a less than 1% increase, compared to an average of a 20% increase among neighbours. This success is attributed to Greenwich’s proactive approach, which included running Universal Credit briefings and outreach sessions, promotional print campaigns, raising awareness internally and reconfiguring support teams.
AWARENESS OF UNIVERSAL CREDIT INTERNALLY
By accurately forecasting the impact of Universal Credit across the council, individual teams can take preventative steps to minimise impact on residents.
BETTER ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES
Staff can now allocate their time and prioritise their workload to the places they know they can make a meaningful difference.
EARLIER INTERVENTIONS
The data gives Greenwich ammunition to build up business cases to start interventions and help residents more effectively.
TARGETED COMMUNICATION
Greenwich can now be more targeted in which residents they contact and how they contact them. Because they are more confident that the resident is genuinely missing out, they can tailor their communication style to suit specific cases.
IDENTIFYING ERRORS
By identifying inaccuracies in the Housing Benefit data earlier, Greenwich can now be more confident that residents are receiving the correct entitlements.
SUPPORT FOR FUNDING
Analysis produced by the LIFT Dashboard recently supported a funding application for the Flexible Homelessness Support Grant based on the number of residents in the private rented sector. The bid was accepted and will feed into early homeless prevention work.
SEAMLESS ROLLOUT
Despite having a large complement of integrated teams, Greenwich found the rollout of the LIFT Dashboard quick and straightforward.
WORKING TOGETHER
A close relationship with Policy in Practice means that Greenwich can suggest changes and see them actioned to improve the platform.
