I wanted to illustrate that you can use data for good and that it can make a difference to both the community and the council’s bottom line.
The LIFT platform lets you identify the
so you can get the right support to those
LIFT lets you explore your data over time
You can identify people in danger of crisis before it hits and target support where it will be most effective, preventing hardship. Then track changes to see which of your activities are working.
Administrative datasets can yield powerful insights that give a fuller picture, and help drive change. LIFT allows local authorities to combine their datasets with our policy engine to make better decisions.
You can see how individual households are impacted by policy changes, now and in the future. Use the information to identify the most vulnerable families, target support to them, and track the change.
Our local authority clients use
LIFT to:
- Tackle problem debt and arrears
- Maximise the income of households
- Evidence return on investment in support
- Identify and support families at risk of eviction
- Avoid unnecessary cost by preventing hardship
- Limit and mitigate the local impact of COVID-19
- Understand current and future demand for services
Features of the LIFT platform
Functions of the LIFT platform
We have recently purchased the discretionary housing payment module from Policy in Practice. We will be expecting our housing and voluntary sector partners to use the calculator when they make the DHP applications. That’s going to really speed up our decision making and be really useful to those partners because they will be able to give people a really good idea of whether they are likely to get something from us.
Data is central to building the case for change. We need to understand how well we’re doing. Policy in Practice is helping us track the outcomes of the people we’ve been working with and compare them to people we’ve not engaged, to evidence the impact of our new approach.
The LIFT Dashboard has allowed us to draw together previously disparate databases into one easily accessible platform. It maps our data against future predicted changes in inflation of household goods and predicted welfare changes and gives the team an easily accessible platform to see what residents’ situations are.
Previously we took data from different systems and manually tried to identify those who needed support or we just put a form to apply for support on our website. But we wanted to identify those people who were in crisis, to be proactive rather than reactive. LIFT allowed us to move away from the traditional approach and run highly targeted campaigns. Within a fortnight, we had identified 100 vulnerable households and supported 95 of them.
Pat Knight
Service Manager (Revenues and Benefits)
One of the first households identified by LIFT as at risk was behind in their council tax, tax debt, and they had liability orders. Because of the money that we were able to get for them, they cleared the old debt and they are now currently paid to debt for 2019 and 2020.
Nick Harvey and Jane Worrell, Folkestone and Hythe District Council
There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing that we’ve identified an issue and can tell the story of what we’ve done to help. Recently, the LIFT platform identified that we have 5,187 households estimated to be in food poverty.
Margaret Gallagher
Head of Performance & Business Intelligence
LIFT has revolutionised the way we work and propelled the amount of support we can offer our customers. Using LIFT, we have assisted 3,482 households which included 4,860 children. This past year we have assisted our residents to claim an additional £7 million of unclaimed benefits which helps them individually and also helps our borough.
Julian Clift, Sutton Council
Using LIFT, we have already identified 299 cases in fuel, water and food poverty and in crisis, at risk or struggling. We are able to tailor support depending on each individual circumstances and people are pleasantly surprised that we are calling to help.
Jane Worrell, Folkestone and Hythe District Council
The LIFT Dashboard has been invaluable in helping us help our customers to maximise their income and helping the most vulnerable of the people in our district to help themselves. One household identified as at risk by the LIFT dashboard was behind with their council tax and they had liability orders. Because of the money we were able to get for them they cleared out the old debt and they are now paid to debt for 2019 and 2020.
