Many older people are not receiving all the benefits that they are entitled to. The Benefit Calculator will provide information to older people at an initial stage, before they seek any professional advice, about the benefits they could be claiming.

Consultants ‘Peer Consulting’ carried out research during the A2B feasibility study and their figures for lack of Pension Credit take up correspond closely with the most recent figures produced by the Social Security Agency (SSA). At the very lowest end of these estimates, even £57million in unclaimed Pension Credit is enough to justify encouraging more take up.

 In addition, our calculator will also screen for Housing Benefit for rent and/or rates, many other ‘passport benefits’, age-related benefits and a range of other benefits and services which older people may be entitled to but may have little knowledge of.

While we do expect that some older people will access the calculator either in their own homes, with family, in libraries and other public facilities, our model assumes that most will do so with assistance from a trusted point-of-contact in the voluntary and community sector. This will be through an organisation that they already know and feel comfortable with.

 We will be working closely with voluntary and community sector organisations with a ‘footfall’ of older people, whose staff can assist them to use the calculator themselves. This may be at IT classes, luncheon clubs, events, home visits or any number of other scenarios. Because the very hardest to reach are often rural and isolated; the calculator can be used on a laptop with remote internet access.

While we certainly welcome all efforts made by the Social Security Agency, that programme does not impact on those who are already above retirement age. In addition, the  circumstances of an older person may change a lot after this initial contact leading to them being on the wrong rate of a benefit. The A2B Benefit Calculator will also identify a range of other benefits and services which are not provided by the SSA.

A2B is not an advice provider and we recognise the high quality of existing information materials currently available from the advice organisations. This website also contains information ‘one-pagers’ on each of the benefits which are referenced in the calculator, including information on how you qualify, what you need to have in order to make an application (eg bank details, National Insurance No etc) and how to find out more. We do not want to swamp people with huge amounts of information; rather we are presenting key facts in ‘plain English’ which can then be followed up.

Our model assumes that professional advisers will be at the heart of the overall process. Later stages in the development of the Benefit Calculator will include integration with case recording systems being used by advisers. Advisers have their own existing methods of identifying benefit entitlement and also provide a more comprehensive range of advice, beyond benefits. Currently, the main users of the calculator will be older people themselves and non-advice organisations, along with relatives, friends, carers, health professionals, clergy etc. 

A2B operates a policy of not competing for funds with any advice or age organisation. Our funder, The Atlantic Philanthropies, committed funding to us which would otherwise not have been available and which has enabled us to lever additional funding from e-government funds, which would not traditionally be associated with the advice sector. None of the work being done by A2B will impact on the partnership working being carried out between organisations and the Social Security Agency. 

The calculations done by the prototype version of the calculator have been thoroughly tested by A2B’s User Experience Officer (over 350 test cases). In addition, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive has successfully tested the Housing Benefit aspects of the calculator.

A series of focus groups with older people and advisers has already taken place and any changes that were identified through those groups have been fully implemented. This includes making the calculator more user-friendly.

Once an older person has completed the Benefit Calculator, they will get an anonymised printout of the final report. This will let them know what benefits they may be entitled to, based on the information that they put in to the calculator. It will also contain a unique reference number and details of a local advice agency which is also taking part in the pilot. They can, if they wish, then take this information to the advice agency and their information can be retrieved using the reference number. The adviser can check the information and assist the older person to apply for any benefits identified.

We will be encouraging, where possible, the input of data by the older people themselves with the non-advice officer available to assist them if needed. The risk of inaccurate entry is no more so than, for example, an older person providing information over the phone to the SSA.

A2B operates a Data Protection Policy, a Privacy Impact Policy and a Vulnerable Adults Policy. These have been developed in line with good practice and expertise in the voluntary and community sector. Copies are available on request.

No. A2B will not be positioning itself as a potential contractor for benefit uptake pilots. As they are targeted at people already on the SSA databases, we recognise these are best delivered through existing relationships between the SSA and Citizen’s Advice Bureaux or Advice NI members. 

No. A2B will not apply for advice funding from statutory organisations, be they devolved government agencies or local councils.