Reaching Every Resident: Lessons from Barnet’s Award-Winning ‘Mon£y Worries’ Campaign
Last year, Barnet Council launched its “Money Worries?” campaign to raise awareness of the support that residents could claim. Since launch, over 20,000 residents have completed the full benefits calculations and the “Money Worries?” gained industry recognition. It was ‘highly commended’ at the Comms2Point0 Unawards and is a finalist for the 2025 LGC Awards.
Building on that success, Barnet Council has run the campaign again, this time emphasising both the available welfare support and the help residents can receive to manage their debt problems.
In this blog post, we explore why benefits take-up campaigns are so important for local government, how they can be structured, and the latest developments from the Money Worries campaign.
Role of Benefits Take-Up Campaigns
Benefits take-up campaigns are an important initiative for Local Authorities for two reasons. First, they help residents maximise their income, reduce essential costs, and build financial resilience. Second, they offer significant advantages for councils, including:
- Preventing financial hardship, which is more cost-effective than managing its consequences.
- Reducing Council Tax arrears.
- Stimulating the local economy through residents’ increased spending.
One of the main reasons people miss out on benefits is that they are unaware of the support they might be entitled to. Therefore, the core goal of benefits take-up campaigns is to encourage residents to use a free benefits calculator to check and claim the benefits they are eligible for.
Resident Targeting
Local authorities can run two main types of benefits take-up campaigns, depending on the information they have about their residents. These two approaches are complementary, and councils run both in parallel to ensure all residents receive the support they are entitled to.
a. Campaigns for residents who are known
These campaigns focus on residents receiving locally administered benefits, such as Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction. Councils have detailed information about these individuals’ circumstances, making it easier to identify additional benefits they might be missing. Councils then proactively share personalised messages to encourage residents to check their full eligibility. For more information, you can read How we support councils to Identify Pension-Age Residents Missing Out on Pension Credit.
b. Campaigns for residents who are not known
These initiatives target people who are not yet on the council’s radar, including those who wrongly believe they do not qualify for welfare support. They rely on diverse outreach efforts, such as council websites, newsletters, and partnerships with local advice centres and housing associations. In addition, councils can use the Ascendant Mavis product to identify the most deprived households and run targeted digital advertising to ensure that residents in the areas with the highest needs see the promotion.
Councils using our Benefits Calculator can also benefit from integrations with banks, fintech platforms, and government agencies, allowing them to place benefits take-up messages directly in residents’ banking apps.
The Barnet Money Worries campaign focuses on this unknown group of residents. For more information, read From Planning to Execution: Barnet Council’s Guide for Benefits Take-Up Campaigns.
Campaign Message
The campaign message should clearly emphasise the practical help available to residents and include a prompt for them to check their benefits. The exact wording depends on who the council aims to reach and which communication channels they use. Barnet Council, for example, has used social media posts, council letters, and partnerships with community organisations to ensure residents stay informed about benefits and other financial support options.
Update on the Money Worries Campaign
Barnet Council’s latest Money Worries campaign continues to deliver positive results. Since the campaign’s relaunch, there has been a clear uptick in the number of sessions and completed benefits calculations, indicating that more residents are finding out about the support they can claim.
When we look at the sources of these sessions, the social media outreach from the Money Worries campaign stands out as the primary driver. In addition, existing channels like hardship grant applications and the website also saw an increase in traffic, as many residents who see the ads end up on the council’s website, where they complete the benefits calculator or learn about other available support. This multi-channel approach demonstrates how the council can effectively connect with residents—particularly those not already known to local welfare teams.
Finally, hardship grants remain the channel with the highest contribution to benefits completion because they combine a large number of sessions with a high completion rate. This suggests that residents who seek urgent financial support are highly motivated to check other forms of assistance, creating an opportunity to connect them with additional benefits.
Conclusion
Barnet Council continues to lead the way in delivering benefits take-up campaigns that help residents become more financially resilient. This work has demonstrated a strong return on investment and laid the groundwork for future efforts to ensure residents can access all the support they are entitled to.
For local authorities interested in following Barnet’s example, the campaign model is flexible enough to be tailored to different communities. By targeting both residents who are already known to the council and those who are not, local authorities can make sure all eligible individuals receive the benefits and financial support they need. We encourage you to reach out if you want more information on implementing a similar, holistic benefits take-up strategy.
