Category

• Fully Validated and Adopted Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Prevention
• Mitigation
• Reduction
• Awareness

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Poverty driver

• Increase income from benefits

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Keywords

• Benefits
• Social Security
• Income Maximisation
• Debt Segmentation
• Financial Resilience

Aim

The project aims to improve the use of data to tackle poverty and prevent crisis by gaining a detailed picture of low-income families in Fife. It does this by identifying opportunities for income maximisation, including among families in debt who are not receiving benefits. It seeks to tackle problem debt and arrears, maximise household income, provide evidence of return on investment in support, identify and support families at risk of eviction, and avoid unnecessary cost by preventing hardship.

The project also aims to understand current and future demand for services by combining several datasets into one platform, including those collected from Housing Benefit (SHBE), Council Tax Reduction (SCTE), Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP), Housing Benefit Overpayment, Universal Credit Data Share (UCDS), Council Tax Arrears, and Rent Arrears (Fife Council Tenants).

Summary

Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) is a data platform that combines several different datasets to provide a holistic view of low-income families in Fife. It brings together data on council tax reduction, housing benefits and legacy benefits. It is being utilised 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, and understand demand for services.
LIFT combines multiple datasets to increase understanding of low-income families, enabling the Council to better support families and track the success of interventions. It has since been implemented in Aberdeen.

What difference does it make?

Some households have left the LIFT system and others have claimed benefits they were informed about. Debt arrears are assessed and potentially written off to mitigate poverty. Details that Fife Council have acquired through LIFT is being converted into action and outreach. It also works to prevent poverty (i.e., homelessness) by allowing people to maintain their tenancies. It also makes low-income households more financially resilient and not in a crisis.

Key take-aways

• Other projects might benefit from bringing information together from a range sources.
• Holistic frameworks to provide support are also beneficial to low-income households.

 

Organisations

Policy in Practice. Fife Council (Research Team, Financial Wellbeing Team, Data Protection Team, Business Technology Solutions). Citizens Advice and Rights Fife (CARF). Governance via: Tackling Poverty and Preventing Crisis Evidence Subgroup. Income Maximisation Debt and Affordable Credit Group. Welfare Planning Group.

Location

Fife (throughout the city).

Contact