Maximus empowers 7,300 households and uncovers
£4 million in benefits in one year

In one year Maximus empowered 7,300 households with personalised support and uncovered £4 million in benefits using the Better Off Calculator

Challenge

Roughly three in five households on Universal Credit were unemployed in July 2022. Nearly two in five Universal Credit households in work are likely to live in relative poverty.

As part of the Restart Scheme Maximus was commissioned to support households to look for and stay in work.

Given the high volume of referrals for support, Maximus needed a standard way for advisors to offer personalised advice at scale.

Solution

Maximus equipped advisors with Policy in Practice’s Better Off Calculator. They used the calculator to support households back into work and ensure they were in the best position to achieve financial stability.

One of the popular features of the award winning tool allowed advisors to compare different scenarios for people and show how much better off they could be in work. Using the calculator, advisors could accurately identify the hidden costs of moving into employment such as travel and childcare, and create an effective budgeting plan with their participants.

The calculator, the smartest available, also let advisors show people what support they were missing out on. Our research shows that over £23 billion of support is unclaimed largely because people do not know what support is available to them. Advisors helped many households to maximise their income through work and benefits and see how they could cover new costs associated with work.

Impact

In the last year, Maximus has helped over 7,300 households with over £4.3 million in additional support. This is worth an average of £670 per household.