 |
Tax Credit Take-Up Good Practice Examples: Tax Credit Take-Up
Projects featured:
Selby District Citizens Advice Bureau Tax Credit Take Up Campaign
Objectives
To increase the take up of tax credits within Selby District.
Groups targeted
Young parents, migrant workers, families on a low income.
How was it funded?
Funding was received from HMRC in partnership with the national governing body Citizens Advice. Selby District CAB receives £12,000 per year.
How was it run?
One part-time advice worker (16 hours a week) was employed. Partners include Sure Start, Connexions, local employers, and medical centres. The service offers checks on entitlement and help with claims and has been advertised through press releases, posters dual language questionnaires etc.
Impact
In the last 6 month campaign from December 2007 to May 2008 the estimated amount of new tax credits generated was £165,237. In the current campaign 17 clients have been assisted since the start of July 08 who have English as a second language. Four of these returned the dual language questionnaires. Posters in Polish have been distributed to workplaces, medical centres and Polish shops but we haven’t monitored how many clients have directly come from these sources.
Lessons Learned
Working with Sure Start works well and we have also built up a steady throughput of enquiries from migrant workers; this has been successful, as we have approached local employers to access this client group. The biggest gains appear to be from these groups.
Contact
Steve Allitt, Selby District Citizens Advice Bureau, Tax Credit take Up Campaign Worker, email: steve.allitt@selbycab.org.uk
Brent CAB
Name of take up project
Tax Credit Take up Campaign.
Objectives
Tax Credit take-up in London Borough of Brent.
Target group
People on a low income, particularly BME communities.
How was it funded?
HMRC provided funding of £20k over two periods of 5 months (10 months total).
How was it run?
Tax Credit assessments were run by advisers at all advice sessions in November 2007-May 2008, with special emphasis on child tax credit in 12 Children’s Centres. Awareness sessions took place with parents and staff at Children’s Centres.
Regular articles were placed in Brent CAB quarterly newsletter (1000 circulation) and Brent Magazine free newspaper (free to all Brent households) and a talk on Life FM (community radio). Leaflets were distributed in English, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali. Eight ‘one-to-many’ information sessions were delivered at Brent Council’s Language2Work (migrant workers), Portage Parents and Carers Support (children with disabilities), Somali Carers Support Group, The Willow Children’s Centre (parents) and Work Directions (lone parents). In total 150 attended.
Impact
£660,000 gained for Brent residents over 10 months.
Lessons Learned
Communication went very well. Externally to partners and the general public (newsletter, local newspapers) and internally (advisers were made aware on a weekly basis of gains made.
However, different audiences react at different rates. We are still getting requests for tax credits work a long time after campaign came to an end. How do you mainstream such a campaign?
Contact
Fernando Ruz, Project Manager, Brent CAB, email: f.ruz@brentcab.co.uk
|
| Terms & Conditions | Developed by Buzzin' Fly |