Supporting Vulnerable households and individuals at risk of financial crisis
WM members and guests came together on the 4th July to consider the data, evidence and insight from the work of Turn2Us, a national charity that provides a grant search tool for individuals and organisations, benefits calculator and gendered poverty project collaboration.
The analysis of Turn2Us data from their benefits calculator shows on a national level that women are the major users of their benefits calculator and 84% of their applications are from those in employment. In addition, the largest age group checking their benefit entitlements are between 25-44. Many people check if they are maximising their Universal Credit entitlements and 20% of the checks through the benefits calculator are on disability entitlements.
Turn2Us has 1600 different grant funding nationally available to access by individuals in need. Currently the Charity is looking to understand through this data where there are cold spots where grant support is needed but funders do not prioritise. More data and information are available from the Head of Information systems, Turn2Us.
The benefits calculator online form captures a wealth of data from applicants and can be used as many times as required. The grants search application form for individuals to make applications to those funders that have signed up to the online platform is an example of the extensive information that is required by an applicant or a referral agency to provide to be assessed before being considered as eligible.
The first breakout session sought to consider what data might be missing that would help to better understand the hot and cold spots at a regional level and which groups of people in need are not accessing financial support that need it or are entitled to it. The second breakout session considered how useful a common application could be to enable applicants to access funding if it was simpler and less frictionless. A lighter touch application form was considered to be an important development and a common and shared application enquiry form might be an initial step towards streamlining access to financial support that could lead to improved cross-referrals between funders.
The gendered poverty collaboration between Turn2Us, Smallwood Trust and Buttle UK offered some interesting insights from their inception stage. The focus of the project is place based to tackle the root causes of gendered and child poverty by creating a collaborative programme which aims to test the effectiveness of a co-produced approach to grant making for women and their children. Three key initial learnings have been the importance of a building a strong working relationship between the collaborators at all levels where values are shared; the development of a legal ‘memorandum of understanding’ that sets out the way the collaborators will work and the importance of transparency and openness to reduce the risk of conflict. To view the video recording of the event.
Other useful information:
https://www.lightningreach.org/application-portal
https://www.lightningreach.org/social-innovation-council