Using data analytics to target discretionary funds

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The context

A Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) is a key tool to prevent homelessness,
as Scottish Government’s £5 million uplift to DHP during the pandemic showed. Scottish statistics don’t give a breakdown of recipients by tenure, but use of DHP to mitigate bedroom tax, underspend on benefit cap cases, lower DHP awareness among private tenants and landlords, and increasingly routine use of DHP for items like advance rent in social housing suggest PRS tenants lose out. As the PRS causes more homelessness than social housing, approaches targeting DHPs towards at-risk PRS tenants have a key prevention role to play.

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The intervention

Cornwall faces many challenges: an expensive PRS, a small social sector,
prevalent second homes and a dispersed geography. COVID-19 has exacerbated all of these factors. Whilst DHP of £1.5 million in 2020 was welcomed, Cornwall Council has historically struggled to fully spend its budget. Most people eligible for DHP did not apply for it - especially private tenants - with the result monies flowed to better supported, better protected social tenants. To drive up DHP requests, the Council sent out colourful leaflets in handwritten envelopes with clear advice that financial help was at hand: but hardly any PRS tenants responded.

Working with the Council, social policy software and analytics company
Policy in Practice found 33% of poor households in Cornwall had experienced
welfare-reform related income reductions. So the Council subscribed to
Policy in Practice’s ‘LIFT’ (Low Income Family Tracker) service to help them
to better identify residents most at risk and in need of support. Using data
compliant measures, LIFT receives and organises Council data from various
sources (Council Tax, rents, revenues, benefits), presenting it back in a simple,
granular online format. Officers can ‘drill down’ to wards, streets and individual
households, or filter (including by tenure) to target help to those facing the most significant financial (and housing) challenges. 

Over three weeks in 2020, a Council officer used LIFT to identify PRS tenants
most at risk of financial problems and homelessness: ultimately pinpointing 150 households, in a PRS of over 30,000. The officer contacted each tenant via a mix of personalised letters, generic flyers and calls, asking them to get in touch to apply for a DHP. Response rates showed calls were much more successful, so the officer went on to call all identified tenants, offering advice and assistance on DHP and other discretionary support, and referring to wider services if needed. Some tenants wanted to speak a number of times before agreeing to accept help.

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The outcome

58% of at risk PRS tenants contacted engaged with the officer, from a baseline
of hardly any responses from this group in past initiatives. Of tenants for
whom DHP was indeed required, 80% successfully applied for it. The Council
awarded £11,000 to rent and over £2,000 for Council Tax debt - from a few
days’ proactive work. Some tenants were referred on to other services for more holistic support or to help with specific issues highlighted, such as Community Energy Plus and Inclusion Cornwall.

This was a short-term pilot exercise, from which it can’t be claimed a DHP
prevented homelessness. But the Council deemed the dual prongs of the
LIFT platform and a dedicated officer the most effective approach to date in
identifying poverty-related homelessness risk, targeting help and securing
engagement from tenants. It also provided a blueprint for tailored, upstream
prevention work for other groups in future.

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Key insights

• a data-driven approach can help identify households at higher homelessness risk, enabling discretionary support to be well targeted, rather than reactively spent
  • using data analytics can help Councils address the lack of parity between social and private sectors in access to/awareness of DHPs and other support: targeting help to those in the PRS who often experience higher shortfalls and lower security, and tend to have less well informed/connected landlords
  • data-led projects need to be properly resourced to fulfil their potential:
  LIFT automates data collation and presentation, but a real person (i.e. a staff member) is still needed to act on data to engage tenants

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Find out more…

Mark Ransom, Assessment, Billing and Collection Manager, Cornwall Council
mark.ransom@cornwall.gov.uk

Paul Garlick, Strategic Client Service Manager, Policy in Practice
paul.garlick@policyinpractice.co.uk