By Ceci Sutcliffe, Partnerships Development Manager at Plinth
Despite their eligibility, there are 3,181,729 single people with an annual income of less than £12,000 that are not receiving the government support they need. (Policy in Practice)
Marginalised communities often go to the voluntary sector for support and companionship, whether this be for emergency wrap-around services or weekly football matches at their local community centre. But often, vulnerable individuals are slipping through the cracks and not getting as much support as they could. Plinth is a community impact platform designed to help bridge the gap between third and public sector support.
Jamie is 27, living alone in private rented accommodation in Bolton. Working day shifts at his local pub and working as a delivery driver in the evenings just covers the rent for his room, with some money left over for his weekly grocery shop. However, recently Jamie has been struggling with his mental health. His boss at the pub keeps reducing his working hours, threatening to let him go if he doesn’t ‘get his act together’. Customers are complaining about him being rude and unprofessional. It’s not in Jamie’s nature to be like this, but he’s hardly sleeping. His room is so cold because he can’t afford to put the heating on. He used to get food on shift, but less hours means less food. Jamie’s struggling to be on time for the few shifts he has left because he can’t face getting out of bed in the morning.
On a Wednesday, Jamie puts his boots on and jogs down to the football pitch. Every week he goes to train with his mates before they all have breakfast together at the community centre. Last week, his football coach noticed that Jamie was looking more tired than usual, and recently had been devouring his bacon bap in seconds. He asked the community club kitchen to allow him an extra bap, and the volunteers told Jamie that they have a pantry open every Tuesday and Friday morning. At the pantry, Jamie made a friend that told him about the job advice services the community centre has on a Monday, the counselling sessions on a Thursday and the running group on a Sunday.
Jamie is one of the 77% of men suffering with common mental health symptoms; nobody knew how much he was struggling before he got a helping hand at his community centre (Therapy For You). He is amongst the 3,181,729 of single people with an annual income of less that £12,000, that are eligible for (and really need) government support, but are slipping through the cracks. People like Jamie aren’t on the council’s radar, but need help just the same. Although councils have teams to support these people, there is such a vacuum of voluntary sector data they struggle to reach them – or even know that they exist. Plinth is gradually filling this data vacuum, helping to identify and reach people like Jamie.
A free case management platform for the voluntary sector, Plinth records attendances that may otherwise remain stored on Google Docs, spreadsheets, get lost on loose pieces of paper, or just not get recorded at all. Local authorities can gain aggregated anonymised insights into the outreach of local community organisations and match this data with a public dataset (like people in Council Tax arrears). By matching these datasets, the council can identify those that are not receiving welfare support but are being helped by the voluntary sector. Plinth has embedded Policy in Practice’s Better Off Calculator which then identifies what benefits an individual is eligible for; this list can then be used by the voluntary sector to reach out to those vulnerable people that they have strong relationships with, helping them get back on track.
After two weeks of going to the pantry twice a week, one of the volunteers took Jamie aside for a quick chat. They had received a list of people that are recorded on the community hub’s Plinth platform, but not on any council support datasets. Jamie put his information into the Better Off Calculator and saw that he was eligible for £532.21 of Universal Credit. Together, they put forward his application, and Jamie is no longer having to choose between a warm meal and turning his bedroom light on.
Government support exists – but there is work to be done in joining things up so that people can get the support they need. Side-by-side with the voluntary sector, that is what Plinth is here to do.
This article is featured in our 24 January newsletter. To get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our mailing list.
