London uses data to help residents find unclaimed benefits

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced the expansion of a data-led scheme to help older Londoners collect unclaimed Pension Credit.

Pension Credit provides extra money to help with living costs for people over the State Pension age and on a low income.

The campaign, in partnership with welfare and data analytics company Policy in Practice, saw 8,200 eligible older Londoners in 17 boroughs receive targeted letters to make them aware that they could claim this benefit.

So far, 2,165 have claimed an average of £3,879 (US$4,916) in unclaimed Pension Credit, amounting to just under £8.4 million. The scheme is now being extended to include up to 23 boroughs. It will target over 10,000 more Londoners and could see an additional £9 million of Pension Credit claimed.

According to the Mayor’s Office, unclaimed Pension Credit is estimated to be worth £246.5 million a year in London alone.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was pleased to extend the “hugely successful campaign”.

Councillor Claire Holland, Executive Member for Communities at London Councils, the local government association for Greater London, said: “This campaign is a great example of what can be achieved through collaboration and intelligent use of data.”

Data analysis

Policy in Practice said this was the first data-led automated letter campaign of its kind across London, following successes with individual councils. It uses the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) analytics platform.

Abigail Everett, Policy and Data Analyst at Policy in Practice, told Cities Today: “LIFT takes local authority benefits administration data, such as housing benefits, council tax support and universal credit data, and runs this through our policy engine.

“Our policy engine identifies which households are struggling, both today and those that are likely to struggle in the future and identifies those that are missing out on benefits they are eligible for and not claiming, and the financial resilience of households. LIFT also layers extra information such as council tax arrears, rent arrears and other debts, alongside those that have been awarded discretionary support.”

The Pension Credit project in London used local authority benefits administration data and ran it through the policy engine to identify 8,239 households eligible for but not claiming Pension Credit. The system automatically sent them a letter to inform them of their entitlement and signpost services to help with claiming the benefit.

Deven Ghelani, Director of Policy in Practice, said the results in London are “easily replicable across the country”.

Analysis published earlier this year by Policy in Practice found that the total amount of unclaimed income-related benefits and social tariffs in the UK is £18.7 billion a year, and put this down to issues such as administrative complexity, lack of awareness, and stigma that can be attached to claiming benefits.

Data potential

“The potential for public sector data is immense and I think we are only at the cusp of using it now,” Ghelani added. “If the public sector were more effectively able to share data with one another – with appropriate governance, safeguards and public purpose in mind – we can do a much better job for our citizens while saving taxpayers’ money at the same time.”

He said data maturity varies across cities in terms of both resources and having the right culture to do more with their data.

Policy in Practice also offers a Better Off Calculator for individuals and advisors, and a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Tracker for social workers.