It’s important that people receive the financial support that they’re legally entitled to. But an estimated £24 billion in benefits and financial support will go unclaimed across Great Britain this year, according to reports in 2025.
The biggest areas of financial support going unclaimed were in Universal Credit, council tax support, and Carer’s Allowance. The type of support that that could make a real difference in people’s lives at a time of complex economic challenges, from helping to improve living standards, wellbeing, health, and happiness.
The sheer size of the unclaimed figure indicates that there are a lot of people out there not getting the right level of financial support. This will not only impact communities directly, but the local authorities that serve them. This may be through an increased demand for local support and intervention or even impacting collection rates for local services such as council tax.
Local authorities will rightly be concerned by this figure and be keen to tackle unclaimed benefits within their area. But with the scale of the issue, where can we even start?
Why aren’t benefits being claimed?
Our Product Owner for BetterCare Finance, Jabran Khan, believes that understanding why benefits aren’t being claimed is key to facing the challenge. The recent report highlights three key reasons why it believes benefits are being unclaimed:
Awareness: with complex and variable eligibility rules, many people may not know they’re entitled to any support.
Complexity: navigating the benefits system can be overwhelming, especially if there are any additional barriers in place, such as additional needs, health issues, or those who are digitally excluded.
Stigma: people may feel put off from seeking help, if they believe they’ll be judged or considered a burden.
Whilst these factors are inevitably at play, if local authorities want to be responsible for real change, Jabran believes we need to look at the structural reasons why benefits aren’t being claimed. With over 6 years of experience, he has worked with social care teams and revenues and benefits teams, to digitalise their financial assessments and to connect people directly with the benefits they’re entitled to.
Over that time, he’s noticed three critical barriers for people claiming benefits:
1. Benefits checks are not embedded in the core financial assessment process
“The Care Act 2014 compels councils to consider income maximisation as part of financial assessments made when understanding how much someone is required to contribute to their own care. However, in reality, overstretched teams often don’t have the capacity to provide personalised support. The information, advice, and guidance (IAG) offered can often be too generic to actually help residents navigate the complex benefits landscape.
“The impact for councils can be that if benefits go unclaimed, a resident’s full financial situation isn’t reflected in their means-tested contribution, meaning councils end up paying more towards the cost of care.
“This has been one of the benefits felt by councils when they shift financial assessments to a digital platform that automatically tailors the results based on the answers given. Income maximisation support can be offered, encouraging benefits without impacting teams’ capacity and ensuring councils aren’t overpaying towards the cost of care.”
2. Local authorities’ teams are working at capacity
“What I’m about to say won’t come as a surprise to anyone working within local authorities right now! Pretty much all the councils I’ve worked with, whether social care teams or revs and bens teams, are stacked with incredibly talented and dedicated people being stretched further and further, with almost no capacity left for debt recovery.
“Too much time is spent on admin, chasing missing information and managing avoidable back-and-forth instead of supporting complex or vulnerable residents. Projects like addressing rates of unclaimed benefits are difficult to get off the ground, because there just isn’t seen to be the time.
“Digital self-service changes that and we’ve seen such an impact across the councils we’ve worked with. By capturing accurate information upfront and streamlining evidence submission, skilled staff can focus where they’re needed most and create more capacity for recovering debt owed to the authority.”
3. Complexity and jargon are deterring engagement
“So much around benefits and financial assessments is complex and filled with jargon. Whilst it’s important from a regulatory position to help councils understand their scope and responsibilities, when it comes to engaging the general public, effort needs to be made to translate the jargon into clear, accessible, and easy to understand guidance.
“Take the current financial assessment journey for example – it’s full of ambiguity. Unclear policy rules, slow processes, and jargon that causes stress and uncertainty for residents. All of which undoubtedly have an impact on completion and accuracy rates. Disengagement with the process leads to failed care packages, unsupported citizens, and unrecoverable debt for the council.
“This was actually one of the reasons for us taking a co-produced animation approach with our digital self-serve products, working with people with lived experience to make engaging, plain-English information, advice, and guidance. By removing the barriers, council teams were able to drive more meaningful engagement.”
Bringing in digital tools to break down barriers
Digital tools can be efficient tools for local authorities to break down some of these barriers to claiming benefits. Digital self-service can boost awareness and demystify the process of applying for benefits through carefully crafted plain-English animations and guidance – increasing the likelihood of uptake.
We’ve worked closely with local authorities to co-produce a suite of digital tools that arm stretched council teams with the support they need to help maximise income for citizens and councils, without needing extra capacity.
Digital tools for adult social care teams – BetterCare Finance
With BetterCare Finance and its Income Maximisation module, benefits are personalised based on the information provided within the financial assessment. This makes them easily accessible at an early stage in their adult social care journey.
Digital tools for revenues and benefits teams – BetterOff
BetterOff, a fully digital benefits platform, gives people personalised recommendations of relevant benefits. This reduces the number of potential sanctions, as citizens apply for the benefits that they’re most likely to need.
To find out how BetterCare Finance with Income Maximisation and BetterOff can help your council maximise income, streamline assessments, and support residents to claim what they’re entitled to, get in touch with us today.
