Purpose

The license for usage of the Low-Income Family
Tracker (LIFT) tool, from Policy in Practice, expired on 26 June
2025. 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 2025-2026 as
outlined in section 1
The annual cost of LIFT is £37,273 per annum, excluding VAT.
GMCA agreed to fund our license for 2024-25 retrospectively,
subject to successful outcomes. Those outcomes were satisfied, and
we are in the process of obtaining that retrospective funding,
which amounts to £42,598. We will utilise this funding to
cover the license for 2025-26.

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.

Content

RESOLVED - That:
To renew the license for usage of LIFT from 27 June 2025 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.

Reasons for the decision

To renew the license for usage of LIFT from 27
June 2025 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 2025-2026, we will review whether LIFT meets our
requirements or whether a procurement process is required to
identify a suitable alternative to enable us to continue to
increase benefit uptake in Oldham as part of our commitment to work
with a resident focus.

Alternative options considered

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 2025-2026, we will review whether LIFT meets our
requirements or whether a procurement process is required to
identify a suitable alternative to enable us to continue to
increase benefit uptake in Oldham as part of our commitment to work
with a resident focus.