For welfare benefits and money advisers

Help more people, with the team you have.

I've been talking to advisers about where their time goes. This is what I heard, and what I'm building for it.

What I heard Write to me

Michael Bejan, founder of Cogniv

What advisers told me

The hours don't go on the sums.

They go on getting the client's circumstances down, the evidence, and chasing DWP.

So people wait

Half of the advice services surveyed turned people away.

Half of those AdviceUK surveyed this year, for lack of capacity.

And then the letter

A decision with no reasons.

Often no facts, no law. The adviser works out the reasons by hand.

The ifs and buts

Which circumstance changes what?

Every caveat, every exception, every council's own scheme. Miss one, and the answer changes.

What I'm building

More of your team can take the hard case.

Here is one made-up client who rents in London. Everything the product says below is copied from what it returned for her.

Your client says it in their own words. No form.

I rent a flat in London for £650 a month.

It understood£650/mo rentRenting

It knows what is still missing, and what it is worth.

Your estimate is not complete yet: 12 answers are missing. One of them alone could change it by up to £13,397 a year.

It asks the question that matters, and says why.

How much do you earn (weekly, monthly, or annual before/after tax)?

Universal Credit can top up working families. The work allowance lets you earn a set amount before the 55% taper reduces your UC.

Take-home pay £241.73 a week or lessTake-home pay over £241.73, up to £451 a weekTake-home pay over £451, up to £1,318.43 a weekTake-home pay over £1,318.43 a week

Each figure comes with its reason.

Your base amount

Whatever your rent or earnings, if you claim Universal Credit it would include a basic amount of £424.90 a month. This part is called the standard allowance, and two things set it: whether you claim as a single person or as a couple, and your age.

Source: gov.uk/universal-credit/what-youll-get

You check it instead of redoing it. The client, the judgement and the challenge to DWP stay with you.

For councils

Every new idea for a council tax reduction scheme has to be modelled and checked before councillors vote. I'm working on letting the revenues and benefits team try one on every kind of household themselves, with every rule traced back to the scheme's own words.

Who is behind it

Who I am.

Michael Bejan

Founder and Managing Director

Before Cogniv I was a Software Development Manager at Amazon Web Services, building financial systems where every amount has to be traced back to where it came from. I want the same for benefits.

It is not released yet. If you advise on benefits or money, or write your council's scheme, I'd love to hear how you work, and what I've missed.

Connect on LinkedIn

Benefits, tax and help with council tax across England, Wales and Scotland. Cogniv GmbH, registered in Berlin (HRB 284492 B). Hosted in Europe under UK GDPR and GDPR, with a data protection representative in the UK.

Write to me

Tell me how you work.

The easiest way is a short email to [email protected], or a message on LinkedIn.

If you'd rather talk, pick two times below for 15 minutes on Teams. Bring a made-up case if you like, with no client details.