The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has detailed how it is using data to help those most affected by the cost of living crisis.
This year inflation in the UK reached its highest level in 40 years, leading to widespread and increasing hardship – particularly in relation to energy costs.
Paul Lodge, chief data officer at DWP, has laid out how the UK Government is harnessing data for schemes such as the Warm Homes Discount and the Energy Company Obligation, which aims to tackle fuel poverty and improve the energy efficiency of homes.
“Those are two things that have been opened up through the Digital Economy Act,” he said. “We have very large scale data sharing with energy companies, for both of those particular benefits. We bulk share data with them based on a list of their customers; we provide them with when they’re eligible or not. That’s been working very effectively for a number of years and a significant amount of discount has been applied to those that require it most.”
Lodge also pointed to the Cold Weather Payments Scheme, where help is provided to people based on data provided by the web Met Office. “When the temperature drops to a particular level for a sustained period of time in a particular area that triggers cold weather payments to the right people,” he said.
Feeding information to policymakers
Lodge was speaking at the recent Think Data for Government event, where data experts from the Open Data Institute (ODI), Audit Scotland and Hypatia Analytics Ltd weighed in on the subject.
He added that there are a number of government organisations feeding information and insight to policymakers, not just at No. 10 and Cabinet Office, but across a range of departments to understand what the scale of the crisis, and what potential interventions can be put in place.
“We’re certainly making sure that we’re tuning up and ensuring that we are absolutely accurate on the passporting and benefits. There are also things that we’re doing, which was also within the scope of the Digital Economy Act called Social tariffs and so we can help water companies, mobile companies and broadband providers target people who require the services but are struggling at the moment. So there are a range of insights that are being delivered into policymakers,” he said.
Research into fuel poverty
The Open Data Institute (ODI) has conducted a major piece of research recently on fuel poverty. However, when conducting the research, the ODI found that quite often the data was old.
“When you’re trying to make decisions today, combining that data set, actually having the most up to date data is really fundamental. So it was really interesting to see that impact,” explained Lisa Allen, head of consultancy for data programmes at the Open Data Institute.
“But also the lack of consistency, so being able to compare the whole of GB or UK was really difficult because the way the data was presented, but also the granularity of the data. So we put more datasets together, including things like weather data, because it simply gets colder up north compared to the south and then the impact that has. We tried to [show] some of the places where the data infrastructure wasn’t supporting the most up to date information needed to make some of these decisions to help people today.”
Audit Scotland has also been working to identify data gaps across the public sector in relation to unmet needs and vulnerable groups.
“Obviously, this has implications when we’re considering how to respond to the cost of living crisis,” said Morag Campsie, senior manager at Audit Scotland.
During its research, Audit Scotland heard how data is a vital enabler for tackling tackle both immediate and long standing issues. However, that data needs to be discoverable and shared more easily.
“We saw through the pandemic, what can be done when there’s a common purpose and collective effort. There’s a need to build on that. And in particular, I think Covid demonstrates how we can use data from across the public sector councils and central government, using third sector, private sector data as well, to identify those in most need, that might need support,” she said.
“It about trying to understand what data is available and making data more discoverable. And that greater collaborative effort, but also that investment and sustained effort in data, because it can obviously add such value and lead to much more informed decisions. But also, you help understand what impact that the funding and the support that’s being offered is having.”
Added Karrie Liu, founder, Hypatia Analytics: “In the pandemic, what I learned from a charity point of view [is that] open data is really helpful because we don’t need to ask for, the NHS or the council to give us data because it’s already available for us.”
We are already working on the agenda for the next Think Digital Identity for Government conference in April 2023 but if you missed this conference, you can still register and view the session recordings online. Register to view here.
