Policy in Practice’s latest analysis of unclaimed benefits and support reveals that 8 million households are missing out on a staggering £22.7 billion a year, or £2,700 each, on average.
There are multiple reasons why benefits go unclaimed, and every non-claimant’s situation will be different, yet we can identify some of the main causes of the non take up of benefits.
Listen back to hear
- New analysis on unclaimed benefits and support in the UK
- What support is going unclaimed, and why
- Policy and frontline work by Greater Manchester Poverty Action to tackle poverty
- Actions that policymakers, organisations and individuals can take
- Impact achieved to close the unclaimed support gap
- Questions and answers with our panel
With guest speakers Laura Burgess, Senior Policy and Research Advisor and Dan Oliver Head of Programmes at Greater Manchester Poverty Action
View the webinar
Poverty is widespread and it is deep. Debt is always an indication of poverty and Council tax debt was up 10.3% in the last year. 3 million people in full time work are in problem debt as well. Alongside this pretty dire situation, there is £23 billion of income related benefits and social tariffs unclaimed each year.
Some people automatically assume if they've applied for Universal Credit, the benefit system will make sure that they've applied for everything that's available to them. But that often doesn't doesn't happen because of the complexities of the system, so being able to offer that holistic support can really help.
Addressing the issue with stigma, we really focus on referral rather than signposting so that the onus is on the organisation to contact the the person rather than the person to contact the organisation. It's far more likely that they'll end up getting support if a referral goes through to the organisation.
Organisations can proactively identify and contact residents in need using data analytics and move towards checking eligibility on behalf of customers. This can take some burden of responsibility off the individual because in many ways that's the root cause of the three barriers, stigma, awareness and complexity.