Decision details

The license for usage of the Low-Income Family Tracker (LIFT) tool, from Policy in Practice, expires on 26 June 2026. The tool has been and continues to be used to proactively identify and target residents who may be eligible for benefits such as Pension Credit, but who are not currently claiming.

Oldham Council is using the tool to support a campaign to increase the uptake of a variety of benefits throughout 2026-27.

The annual cost of LIFT is £39,137 per annum, excluding VAT. The cost has been budgeted within the 2026-27 Crisis and Resilience Fund scheme grant funded by the UK Government.

Approval is requested to award and enter a 12-month call-off contract with Policy in Practice under the Crown Commercial Services G Cloud 14 RM.1577.14 Framework Agreement.

To renew the license for usage of LIFT from 27 June 2026 for 12 months via CCS G Cloud 14 Framework RM.1557.14, this will ensure services that currently utilise this application will remain licensed and fully supported, ensuring uninterrupted service continuity.

Without LIFT, we would not currently have the capacity or capability to extract the relevant data to deliver a targeted campaign to increase benefit uptake.

Whilst alternative options to LIFT may be available in the marketplace, in addition to the Council building a platform internally, a change to a different platform would require several months of planning, implementation and training, and would not be ready in time to support the current benefit uptake work.

During 2026-2027, we will review whether LIFT fully meets our requirements. A procurement process in advance of June 2027 will be undertaken as this is the final period that a compliant contract can be issued.

Without LIFT, we would not currently have the capacity or capability to extract the relevant data to deliver a targeted campaign to increase benefit uptake.

Whilst alternative options to LIFT may be available in the marketplace, in addition to the Council building a platform internally, a change to a different platform would require several months of planning, implementation and training, and would not be ready in time to support the current benefit uptake work.

None