The Communication Award Shortlist

Craig Currie, Communications Manager, Department for Work and Pensions

Pension Credit is a means-tested benefit which over a million entitled pensioners don’t claim. Previously, we’ve paid for advertising to encourage needy pensioners to claim. We wanted to refine our approach to improve the ‘response to conversion’ ratio to reduce nugatory contacts and avoid falsely raising customer hopes.

Research shows these customers listen to ‘trusted voice’ channels: friends, family, local organisations. So Craig Currie created two digital toolkits. One is aimed at organisations who have contact with pensioners. It provides tools to help organisations understand how to identify eligible people and how to help people to claim. The other toolkit is aimed at friends and family. We have used this with our own staff. It provides case studies and prompts colleagues to consider whether people they know might be entitled to Pension Credit and links them through to the eligibility calculator.

Craig has worked with partners in the pilot areas to make sure they understand what the toolkit is for and that they are happy to use it and to pass it on. He has also worked closely with the national marketing team of Age UK. They have used elements of the toolkit within their own campaign, ‘More Money In Your Pocket’. They have disseminated 350k leaflets, which use elements from the toolkit.

The toolkits were developed at zero-cost. Had they been developed by an agency, they would have cost £80k. To achieve a similar value in Pension Credit awards, we would have had to spend £40k on communications.