Against the background of rising levels of hardship, triggered by a combination of the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis, last year the GLA launched its ‘Cost of living – Digital tools’ programme.

The aim of the programme was for organisations to provide Londoners with new tools that improve  awareness of, and access to, information about rights and entitlements, in order to mitigate the effects of the cost of living crisis.  

entitledto was delighted when our AdviceConnect proposal was accepted and we are even more pleased to announce the service went live on our public benefits calculator at the end of last month.

We also want to publicly say thanks to Advice Local, as its directory of local support and advice organisations is an integral part of the AdviceConnect functionality. 

For those who wish to see a detailed overview of our project, click the image below to find out more about the background to the programme, our approach and the project outcomes.

For a shorter summary of our new service, please read on…

Introducing AdviceConnect

When a user completes a calculation on our public benefits calculator they are presented with a results page outlining all their potential entitlements.

For any Londoners completing a calculation their results page now includes a panel helping them to access further advice and guidance based on their postcode and the circumstances of their household.

The panel has three variations:

The household is not entitled to benefits

If the entered information suggests the household isn’t entitled to benefits they will be presented with the following panel so that they are able to check for further local sources of support:

The household is entitled to benefits – simple circumstances

If the benefits situation is relatively straightforward, without any complicating factors, they will be presented with the following panel:

Based on postcode this panel provides links to a list of local advice organisations provided via AdviceLocal as well as a link to the user’s local authority cost of living hub for further information about local schemes and entitlements.

The household is entitled to benefits – more complex circumstances

For people who may have a more complex benefits background (for example a person with a disability lives in the household, there is a large family or someone of pension age) they will be presented with the following panel:

As well as the list of local advice organisations and link to the person’s local authority cost of living hub, users who see this panel are given the option to email themselves a link to their online calculation, which also includes a pdf of their benefits calculation results.

This allows them to share their information, if they choose, with other organisations and advisers without either having to continually complete or provide the same information.

Let us know what you think

We hope AdviceConnect is able to help many Londoners to identify the support and benefits information they need to maximise their incomes during this challenging cost of living crisis.

Take a look at the new functionality and please let us know your thoughts.