Q&A: the expert unlocking £19billion for your colleagues

Manu Peleteiro is on a mission to support for your colleagues. We catch up with him on money stigma, barriers to income and the £19bn treasure trove of support he's found.

 

"Can you tell us about InBest and how the business came about? Where did the idea come from?"

 

InBest was originally a consultancy company building data products for asset management, pension companies and retail banks. We also worked on pro-bono projects for welfare advisers and affordable lenders and it was at this point that we first heard how difficult it can be to accurately calculate benefits entitlements.

 

As a side project, we set about building a prototype of a benefits calculator. We quickly started seeing a lot of usage on the calculator and received really good feedback from our partners, so in early 2020, we decided to move away from the consultancy business entirely and focus our efforts on the benefits calculator instead.

 

There are over 8 million households in the UK missing out on £19 billion in benefits. The most common reasons for this, are either they don’t know their entitlement, or they assume they aren’t eligible at all. To address this discrepancy, we partner with governments, local authorities and customer-centric organisations focused on financial inclusion to identify customers with unclaimed benefits and give them the tools and content they need to apply for what they are entitled to. Essentially, our vision is that vulnerable households should get support as soon as they need it, by automating the end-to-end process for benefits and debt advice, from awareness and assessment to payments and monitoring.

 

 

"What is your view on the role between technology and financial wellbeing? Is there more that existing technology can do to improve financial lives?"

 

Looking at InBest’s model specifically, the main advantage technology gives us is the ability to serve millions of people at almost zero marginal cost. This is key to creating a sustainable, long-term solution for a low-margin transaction.More generally, in my view there are two main areas where technology can assist in building better financial futures - system integrations and data sharing. In our day-to-day lives, we need to deal with countless institutions (employers, housing providers, supermarkets, energy companies. government, etc.).

 

If customers’ data was to be shared more efficiently across these institutions, people would receive much better services in a much simpler way.

 

 

"In your view, what are the barriers which stop people from maximising their income?"

 

The most common reason why people miss out on their benefits is that they are unaware of what they are entitled to or assume they are not eligible for support. This general lack of awareness often prevents people from checking whether they are eligible or not.

 

We believe the most efficient way to raise awareness of unclaimed benefits is by sending proactive and personalised notifications in the financial applications people are already using. A prime example is Wagestream. Providers like Wagestream can leverage existing customer data to send nudges to encourage people to apply for all the benefits and discounts they are eligible for. These notifications include:

 

• Informing people about potential additional income and available discounts
• Reminding people to apply for their respective benefits and discounts
• Updating people about new benefits and discounts they may be eligible for
  
  

 

"Is money stigma still a major issue? What can be done to overcome this?"

 

Yes, stigma around welfare benefits definitely continues to exist. Again, having benefits checkers as an additional feature on existing money management applications can normalise the use of these.

 

It is also very important that providers consider how they frame welfare benefits. For example, there is a lot of support available which is not technically welfare benefits, rather discounts for households with specific circumstances like having children or having a disability. Using the correct terminology is extremely important.

 

 

"What’s next for InBest?"

 

Our main focus continues to be embedding the benefits calculator in as many providers as possible, to make sure that all UK households are aware of the benefits they are eligible for. We also keep expanding our benefits coverage, so we leave no stone unturned when looking for additional income or discounts for our customers.

 

We already cover national benefits, social tariffs, local discretionary schemes, and we’ve recently launched retrofitting grants to help people improve their houses and reduce their energy bills.Inbestai is the benefits entitlement calculator helping UK households maximise their income through the £19 billion in benefits that goes unclaimed each year.