Service: Collecting unpaid Council Tax for Salford City Council established during Covid-19 lockdown.
Partnership: Salford’s Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service, Citizens Advice and Income Expenditure Hub epitomises determination to address Council’s priority: Vulnerability Support and Digital Inclusion to tackle poverty and inequality by ensuring all residents have digital access.
Rundles approach:
• Training staff: suicide prevention/mental-health first-aider
• Expanding in-house Welfare Team
• Extending Citizens Advice holds from 30 to 60-days
• Increasing payment arrangements by 22.8%
• 20+% customers paying in full at pre-compliance
• Collecting £1m+ CT-debt with no enforcement fees
• Enforcement Agents being ‘eyes/ears’ in community, enabling early-interventions from Salford’s ‘Better Off’ Team’
• Facilitating Income-Expenditure Hub’s financial calculator/option to share details with all creditors
• Supporting unclaimed-benefits applications
Partnership has set the blueprint for multiagency engagement and digital inclusion addressing local priorities, getting residents on-line and helping them to become better off.
Results: Saving 5,000+ potentially/vulnerable customers from increased-hardship/suicidal feelings/loan-shark exploitation/modern-day slavery/deprivation.