Policy in Practice

Benefits Calculator: Better Off Calculator

Our benefits calculator is accurate, comprehensive and helps councils, local authorities, and welfare services identify residents eligible for Universal Credit, legacy benefits, local support schemes, and social tariffs. The Benefits Calculator supports benefit take-up campaigns, improves financial inclusion, and helps residents maximise income and reduce arrears by accessing unclaimed benefits

Features

• Benefits calculator to identify unclaimed benefits and support
• Built-in SFS compliant I&E and budgeting calculator
• Side-by-side comparison of current and planned changes in circumstances
• Accurately calculate next month’s UC with engaging visuals
• Available as a hosted web-based application benefits calculator
• Available as an API to integrate into current systems/processes
• SSO, self-serve, integration and customisation are all available
• Accurately calculates entitlement for all support schemes across the UK
• Impact focused, showing people how to be better-off in work
• Training and built in chat support with human policy experts

Benefits

• Accurate: Captures policy changes so calculations are always up-to-date
• Comprehensive: Covers all benefits, social tariffs and support schemes
• Fast: Saved cases, integrations and pre-population saves advisors time
• Easy to use: Simple language, clear visuals, live chat support
• Engaging: Visually appealing, highlighting unclaimed support and impact of work
• Action focused: Shows impact of work and changes in circumstance
• Informative: MI reporting shows clients the impact of their work
• Effective: Automations, integration and application processing improve take-up
• Efficient: Saves advisors/users time: Designed to reduce admin burden
• Inclusive: Simplifies and reduces the complexity of applying for support

£239 to £5,000 a licence a year

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at hello@policyinpractice.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

154146904478025

Contact

Deven Ghelani
0330 088 9242
hello@policyinpractice.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: N/a
• System requirements:
  • Browser
  • Internet access

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Response times are typically within the hour
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Web chat accessibility testing: Testing has been done by the web chat software provider. Any further conversations on accessibility would be welcomed by Policy in Practice
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Service includes a half day of on-site/online training.; Additional time can be purchased.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Onsite training, online training, or user documentation
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Our standard data retention terms are from the beginning of the contract to the termination and one year after. You can amend your data retention terms to delete all of your records within six months after contract termination at no charge. ; ; Any alternative data retention policies need to be agreed with your account manager and will incur a management overhead that will need to be costed.
• End-of-contract process: The service is delivered and there are no additional costs.; ; The buyer need only provide 45 days written notice if provided as an ongoing service.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Responsive design
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: Web-based user interface, SSO, API access, and webhooks
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: We run automated light house testing and had an independent accessibility assessor review all sites.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: To set up the API a user needs to request an API key from their Policy in Practice representative. Once they have the api key they can pass it in as a URL parameter to access the API. The API is not a management API and as such changes cannot be made by it. Instead users have the option to calculate a high level benefits entitlement, an in-depth benefits entitlement, or to pre-populate a case in the Better Off Calculator with inputs.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Open API (also known as Swagger)
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: The logo, colours, labels and ordering of questions on the form.; ; We can customise the data fields returned in the webhook.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: We use AWS lambda, cloudfront and ELBs to ensure maximum uptime with near limitless scalability.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Management information and usage reports available within the product.
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Sent securely via file sharing site as an excel file. A pdf can be downloaded of an individual case.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats: JSON
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats: JSON

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Where you are unable to use or receive the Services for a period of time in excess of 24 hours, we will, upon receipt of notice from you claiming the same, repay to you an amount equal to 50% of the Fees you have paid for such 24 hour period (calculated pro-rata). In order for this clause to take effect, you must notify us of such claim no later than 10 business days following the end of the applicable outage. Failure to provide notification by such date shall invalidate such claim and shall absolve us from any liability under this section to pay any such amounts. Those amounts stated within this section 8.1 shall be your sole remedy in respect of the Services being unavailable for any reason and, upon payment of such amounts or your waiving the right to receive such amounts by failing to make the relevant notification, we shall have no further liability.
• Approach to resilience: Available on request.
• Outage reporting: Email alerts

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Role Based Access Control
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: You control when users can access audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: QMS
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 28/07/2021
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/a
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Document and available upon request as PDF / word document.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Processes are regularly updated by our CTO and Director of Operations, with external support/input on a regular basis.; ; We operate industry-standard continuous integration and deployment approaches aligned to the Accelerate/State of DevOps research and recommendations. We use infrastructure as code managed in source control.; ; At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for change management processes.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Processes are regularly updated by our CTO and head of operations, with external support / input on a regular basis.; ; We make use of github dependabot alerts. Regular automated deployments ensures updates and security patches are incorporated as a matter of course. We actively develop our software and ensure that vulnerabilities are patched via the dependency management system.; ; At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for security patching.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Processes are updated by our CTO and Head of operations with external input on a regular (at least annual) basis.; ; At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for protective monitoring processes and use AWS GuardDuty to monitor for suspicious behaviour. We additionally employ a SaaS monitoring solution at the application level.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Processes are updated by our CTO and Head of operations with external input on a regular (at least annual) basis.; ; At the networking infrastructure level, we rely on AWS for incident management processes.; ; We have a documented internal management and incident response process.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  We aim to achieve carbon neutrality by greening business processes and offsetting more carbon emissions than we emit.; ; As a small company our tCO2e is relatively low already but we still aim to be a carbon-neutral company by 2025

  Covid-19 recovery

  We directly support people and communities to manage and recover from the impacts of COVID-19, including those worst affected or who are/were shielding by identifying unclaimed benefits and support that a resident may be eligible for.; ; In some organisations, new ways of working are required post-COVID-19. We deliver an innovative and streamlined new way of working for local authorities and advice organisations to provide a simple and consistent approach to supporting vulnerable residents.; ; The calculator can improve the health and wellbeing of residents by improving their financial strength and providing them with support that they did not know was available to them. Improving their health and wellbeing can often lower the demand on health and care services.

  Tackling economic inequality

  The delivery of the Better Off Calculator can assist residents into employment by showing them how they would be better off in work than out of work.; ; The Better Off Calculator is a scalable and future-proofed method that modernises delivery and increases productivity with a higher quality of service.; ; directly tackles economic recovery, providing support to vulnerable residents by ensuring they are claiming all benefits and support that they are eligible for.

  Equal opportunity

  The Better Off Calculator helps people, including those from; disadvantaged or minority groups, to move into employment or into higher paid roles by showing how a person can be better off in work than out of work.

  Wellbeing

  The Better Off Calculator identifies benefits and support that a person is eligible for, this in turn can improve their financial strength. Improved financial strength can often result in improved mental health.

Pricing

• Price: £239 to £5,000 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: We are able to offer up to one week's access to a trial account, which also includes some user training to ensure organisations get the most out of the trial period. Customisations and self-serves would not be included in this trial.

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at hello@policyinpractice.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.