The Benefit and Budgeting Calculator has changed the way we work completely across different teams. We have over 100 staff using it and there now tends to be only one conversation with our customers so it’s made it easier for them. It’s speeded up processes in a way that we didn’t really think would happen.
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The Motor Neurone Disease Association is the only national charity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland focused on improving access to care, research and campaigning for people living with MND. We want to understand how the introduction of Universal Credit will affect people living with MND, their carers and their families, in order to inform the advocacy, advice and support we provide around this issue. Policy in Practice’s expertise and insight will help us to ensure we can continue to provide the best possible support to all those affected by MND who are impacted by the transition to Universal Credit.
Recent commissions include analysis on how the internal resources required for a County Council will change with the introduction of Universal Credit. A group of housing associations have commissioned us to analyse how people living in supported housing will be affected by Universal Credit. Another housing association asked us to model flexible rents for tenants.
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Low Income Londoners and Welfare Reform
With support from Trust for London Policy in Pracice is tracking around one million low-income Londoners across 19 boroughs to understand the causes and consequences of poverty. Our household level approach brings together anonymised data sets from different councils in order to track income, employment and poverty over time. Phases one and two of the 18 month project are now complete. We’ve combined data from 19 London boroughs on 575,000 low income households. Over 550,000 adults and 350,000 children live in these households, representing 27% of the overall population living in these boroughs.
Consultation response: Eligibility for free school meals and the early years pupil premium under Universal Credit
The Government recently proposed new criteria for eligibility to free school meals under Universal Credit. It is our view that the proposal, as it stands, does not meet the objectives of Universal Credit which is to make work pay. Our consultation response set out our main reservations about the current proposal, together with a suggested solution.
Download consultation response
Latest media coverage
Wednesday 25 April, Sky News
Deven Ghelani was interviewed about Universal Credit. He said that other reforms, as well as Universal Credit, were impacting living standards.
Listen here
Wednesday 25 April, Talk Radio
Deven Ghelani was interviewed about Universal Credit. He said that Universal Credit is becoming more complicated.
Listen here
Latest news releases
Sunday 25 March 2018
78% of self employed low-income Londoners set to be £4,128 worse off per annum under Universal Credit’s new initiative
For full release click here
Wednesday 20 September 2017
Access to benefits data could make up to 4.8million households eligible for mainstream credit
For full release click here
Nadine Burns
Customer Support Team Manager
The customer is going to be £7,000 a year better off. Without the Benefit and Budgeting Calculator I’m not sure that case would have ever made its way to our team because the customer wasn’t in arrears, she was paying and she never had any idea she could claim any benefits.
Nadine Burns
Customer Support Team Manager
We have used the Benefit and Budgeting Calculator for several years. We use it seamlessly across three large departments and it has helped improve our customers’ experience. Customers give us their information once making conversations easier, and it helps us to have all the information we need in order to give support. We have helped lots of customers claim benefits they did not know they are entitled to and have always found Policy in Practice’s support if we have any queries to be impeccable.
Nadine Burns
Customer Support Team Manager
The number of serious incidents involving children increased by 27 and the number of incidents involving adults increased by 15 in 2020. My vision is for MAST is to prevent that and give us the ammunition to say that the reductions and cost savings and service reductions that we’ve gone through over the last seven years have reduced our ability to act quickly and have early intervention. MAST gives us the weapon to say we actually need more early intervention before people become a safeguarding case.
Paul Withers, Walsall Council
We couldn’t have got to where we have without Policy in Practice’s modelling work. The advice and intelligence that we’ve had has been first rate. The commitment, the detail and the effort that has gone into the modelling has been absolutely second to none. People have gone the extra mile and beyond to accommodate us. It’s been a very positive experience.
David Graaff, Haringey Council
We use the calculator with Reach Out, our vulnerable customer’s arm. The tool is invaluable in the early identification of benefit eligibility and assists with cost savings to our vulnerable customers. It is simple to use and shows a level of detail like nothing else on the market.
Ben Jones, Sigma
Supporting customers to ensure they maximise their income is a vital part of our debt advice process. Close to 50% of customers who we’ve done a benefits assessment for are eligible for more benefits than they’ve been claiming. The tool is quick, intuitive to use and rich in detail – including excellent information on support at local authority level. Another plus is that, as well as alerting customers to additional benefits, it highlights other entitlements such as free prescriptions, free school meals, help with water costs, reduced price WiFi contracts and more.
Sebrina McCullough, Financial Wellness Group
With LIFT we can see our caseload changing and the different types of households that are being impacted by the economic downturns. This lets us understand how we can reflect our support to match the impact that’s occurring as people move off housing benefit and predominantly onto Universal Credit as they become made redundant. We can be specific with our targeting of resources of help, which we wouldn’t be able to do without the LIFT Dashboard.
Clive Jones, Luton Borough Council
You can explain benefit entitlements but people may not fully grasp the numbers. Having the Benefit and Budgeting Calculator as a mechanism to visually explain the breakdown of entitlements using colour coded charts really helps as it’s something people can relate to.
Grant Bailey, Cheltenham Borough Homes
The Motor Neurone Disease Association is the only national charity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland focused on improving access to care, research and campaigning for people living with MND. We want to understand how the introduction of Universal Credit will affect people living with MND, their carers and their families, in order to inform the advocacy, advice and support we provide around this issue. Policy in Practice’s expertise and insight will help us to ensure we can continue to provide the best possible support to all those affected by MND who are impacted by the transition to Universal Credit.
