How we reach our figures
This page provides a detailed explanation of how we reach the figures within our ‘Pounds in Pockets’ approach, and ‘Missing millions’ campaign, because at REACH we truly believe in complete transparency.
By the way, ‘Pounds in pockets’ refers to traditionally named income maximisation (which is it’s name within the industry). We only call it pounds in pockets to aid understanding within the general public.
“For every £1 donated to us we’re able to deliver £1.76 of impact, which ultimately means more money into people’s pockets.”
This refers to financial gains recorded within the period (in this case 1st October 2023 – 30th June 2024), which is broken down into three areas; Benefits, Debt and Client Aid. In all areas it can include both one-off payments and regular income (for which please use figures based on payments due over a 12-month period).
Benefits includes (but is not limited to) payments awarded through Attendance Allowance, Housing benefits and rent rebates, PIP, Universal Credit, Carers Allowance, Council Tax Reduction, Discretionary Housing Payments, DLA, Child Benefit, General Form Completion and Pension Credit.
Debt is made up of money written off through DROs and insolvency services, full bankruptcy and DMPs. This is recorded as a financial gain because by helping individuals get this money written off effectively boosts their funds back into the black from a negative figure. It also usually gains them additional funds as they are no longer paying for debt management fees, or earning negative interest. Debt written-off is reported as a gain to the individual, but debts rescheduled are not. Whilst this is of benefit to clients, the debt is still owed.
Client aid is made up of financial assistance usually funded by grants to help people in crisis. It can include (but is not limited to) Acts 435, Client Aid Grants, Household Support Grant, Newmarket Charitable COL grants, Shopping Vouchers, Suffolk Household Fund, and Utility Vouchers.
Here are the latest Financial Gains (1st October 2023 – 30th June 2024), broken down into areas as follows:
Total £826,996
£496,543 – Benefits
£304,648 – Debt
£25,805 – Client Aid
Total income so far this year is £469,502, made up of donations and grants.
This is made up of actual figures, and does not include any kind of projections (such as some other agencies do).
So currently for every pound we receive we get £1.76 back for our clients.
“In the UK there is more than £23billion in benefits unclaimed.”
A recent report from www.policyinpractice.co.uk estimated that last year in the UK, nearly £23 billion of benefits went unclaimed. The breakdown of this is below.
As you can see, this includes national benefits such as Pension Credit, local benefits such as Council Tax support, and social tariffs and energy support, such as water and free TV licences.
For a while, we at REACH have been banging on about some of these unclaimed benefits, in particular, Attendance Allowance - a benefit for the older generation, and we have had some great success in helping some of our most vulnerable citizens claim money that they are eligible for.
What was very shocking to me at least in our figures from last year, was that we even helped families who hadn’t even claimed Child Benefit! It’s not an isolated issue as you see from the Policy in Practice diagram above. But it’s not just benefits, but utilities, broadband and more.
Therefore, this year we have stepped up our determination to help local people find some of Haverhill’s ‘missing millions’, which includes all of the financial support above, as well as the financial gains returned within debt and client aid too (see breakdown above)! It’s our ‘Pounds in Pockets’ project (or the technical term is income maximisation).