Administrative data supports councils in delivering the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) end-to-end, from identifying residents who may be eligible for support to running targeted campaigns and tracking outcomes.
Administrative data allows councils to identify who may need help, target outreach based on individual circumstances and local priorities, intervene earlier to prevent escalation, and understand what happens after support is provided. This makes the delivery of local support more targeted, more preventative, and easier to measure over time.
What does administrative data mean in practice
Administrative data is the information councils already collect through day-to-day service delivery. A common example is data from Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction claims.
This data includes details such as household circumstances, disability-related indicators, housing situation, income, and the benefits residents are receiving. It is also updated regularly, allowing councils to monitor changes over time and respond to emerging needs.
This type of data is particularly relevant to CRF delivery, where councils need to identify low-income households, assess needs quickly, and provide support tailored to each resident’s situation.
How councils can use administrative data
Across the UK, 7 million households miss out on thousands of pounds each year in unclaimed benefits, discounts, and grants. Helping residents maximise their income is one of the most effective and practical ways to deliver local support aligned with the CRF, and a core resilience outcome under the fund. Administrative data enables councils to identify and target residents who may be missing support, and reach them earlier before problems escalate.
It also plays a key role in strengthening referral pathways between services. Councils can use administrative data to connect residents to wider support, including benefits advice, debt support, employment services, and other resilience programmes, supporting a more joined-up and “no wrong door” approach.
Finally, administrative data enables councils to track what happens afterwards, improving outcome monitoring, reporting, and the overall effectiveness of local support delivery.
Types of campaigns councils can run
Councils can use administrative data to run three main types of campaigns:
Benefits take-up campaigns
These campaigns aim to help residents claim support they may be entitled to but are not yet receiving. This can include Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance, Healthy Start, free childcare support, or social water tariffs. These campaigns directly support income maximisation and financial resilience.
Prevention campaigns
These campaigns aim to identify residents early and deliver targeted support before financial problems escalate into crisis. This can include employment support, debt prevention, arrears intervention, housing stability support, or income maximisation. By intervening early, councils can reduce future demand on crisis services and support longer-term financial resilience.
Hardship and crisis support campaigns
These campaigns aim to identify residents who are experiencing or at risk of a financial shock, provide timely, needs-based assistance, and connect them with broader support. This includes both immediate crisis support, such as emergency payments, and referrals to longer-term services such as debt advice, housing support, or benefits guidance.
They can also include follow-up after an award to ensure residents have accessed the support they are entitled to and that underlying needs are addressed, helping reduce repeat demand and improve outcomes over time.
Energy cost support campaigns
These campaigns aim to identify households facing high energy costs, such as those reliant on heating oil or living in low-energy-efficiency homes, and to provide targeted support. This can include energy grants, social tariffs, energy advice, or referrals to retrofit and insulation schemes. These campaigns help prevent financial pressure from rising energy costs and reduce the risk of a crisis.
How campaigns are delivered in practice
Councils can use administrative data across the end-to-end delivery of their campaigns:
Identify and target residents who may need support
Administrative data allows councils to segment residents based on their circumstances and support needs, for example, identifying households who may be eligible for support but are not yet receiving it. This provides a clear starting point and enables councils to engage residents with targeted communications that encourage them to take action and access the support available to them.
Follow up and connect people to wider support
Councils can use administrative data to understand the actions residents have taken and send personalised communications.
Residents who have already taken action can be signposted or referred to wider support to improve their financial resilience, including benefits advice, debt support, employment services, or housing support. Those who have not taken action can receive reminders and be offered additional help, including face-to-face support where needed. This approach supports warm referrals and helps ensure residents do not fall through the gaps between services.
Track outcomes and report impact
Administrative data supports the monitoring and reporting of campaign outcomes. Councils can track engagement, take-up, referral outcomes, repeat need, and changes over time. This helps teams demonstrate what has changed, understand which interventions are most effective, and report against DWP management information requirements.
The benefits for councils
Using administrative data is a core approach to delivering the CRF effectively:
- Enable earlier intervention, reducing escalation into crisis, arrears, or repeat demand.
- Deliver targeted campaigns that reach households most in need of support.
- Support income maximisation and financial resilience outcomes.
- Prioritise limited local funding for vulnerable residents who are not eligible for national benefits or who need urgent assistance.
- Strengthen coordination across local services through clearer referral pathways.
- Support effective and consistent reporting to service leads, elected members, and the DWP.
Our experience working with councils
We have worked with 35 councils using administrative data to run benefits take-up campaigns, target and deliver hardship grants, and design local welfare schemes.
We are now working with councils and national welfare agencies to design and implement end-to-end delivery journeys for the CRF, covering identification, targeted outreach, support delivery, referral pathways, and reporting. Book a demo to see how this could work for your council.