Rutland County Council estimates lower income families in the county are missing out on £5m in benefits and will appoint a new officer to help them access all entitlements.

The authority's cabinet will next week discuss buying a new software package to help crunch the numbers as well as a calculator app to help families on lower incomes to manage their finances, by giving access to income and expenditure reports and information on where to gain support.

The funds to run the new project will come from a money pot the authority has set aside called the Process Improvement Fund. However, the financial details are being kept under wraps and the authority intends to exclude the press and public when it is discussed on Tuesday (September 10).

The report, which has been written by head of customer experience Andrea Grinney and director of strategic resources Kirsty Nutton says that by helping residents to access all the benefits they are eligible for, it could lessen the financial impact on the council.

"If the council can help households in this way, it may also benefit from less demand on financially strapped council services and intervention and prevention with residents can happen earlier, reducing the need for council services. It is expected that this should provide an expected ROI [return on investment] for the council, however extraction of cashable savings may be challenging to identify given the variety of needs of residents that may be present."

It says that by undertaking four campaigns a year it could cover the undisclosed cost of the project. The campaigns would centre on pension credit; debt; free school meals and homeless prevention. 

The software would be brought from London based company Policy in Practice.

The Liberal Democrat-run authority has a budget of £52m this financial year.

advertisement