A not so Stupid Question?

I work for a merged Housing Association.

Our Welfare Team (in my old Housing Association) have always recorded our weekly benefit income/gains as a weekly figure then multiplied by 52 weeks = Annual Amount gained for the tenant as shown below:
Date of Weekly Benefit Award
22-Feb-2023 @ £92.40 PIP Enhanced Daily Living.
Record Benefit as £92.40 x 52 weeks or = £4,804.80.

Our Welfare Team (in the merged Housing Association) have recorded their weekly benefit income/gains as a weekly figure as shown below:
Date of Weekly Benefit Award
22-Feb-2023 @ £92.40 PIP Enhanced Daily Living.
Record Benefit as Award Date to End Date of Fin Year
22-Feb-2023 to 02-Apr-2023 = 40 days or 5.72 weeks or = £528.00.

I have worked for several organisations and have never recorded the weekly benefit income/gain in the 2nd example?

I know that the local Council Welfare Team, CAB, etc etc always record on the 52 week count, purely because the 2nd example totally undervalues the gain for the tenants and the work of the Welfare Team?

Can any interested parties please reply and clarify how they record their Benefit Income/Gains?

Many thanks.

Mark Woodhouse

It’s all basically arbitrary, but yes I agree with you that next 52 weeks is a more sensible recording method. Why should a PIP award made on 3rd March be worth less than the same one made on 3rd May?

Citizens Advice use a 52-week approach and my understanding is that this was validated by the National Audit Office as the appropriate way to record outcomes. After all, it could easily be argued that PIP awards, for instance, should be recorded as being for the whole period of the award, and the objections would be that there could be a revision or supersession which would change the outcome, and the rates of payment would change year on year in unpredictable ways. So I guess that it was a judgement call to establish a fair and simple way to record outcomes.

I always assumed funding requirements were why CAB etc records it with the 52 week formula. Otherwise I’d think you’d want to tailor it to fit the aims of your project?

I’ve mostly worked on small projects were reporting on the project as a whole was more important than per financial year. Atm I report 2 figures - awards to date and weekly award amount - i.e. £70k + £2k/week.

We’re in regular contact with most of our clients, so the awards will generally keep ticking indefinitely until the client reports otherwise.

OP’s ‘Welfare Team (in the merged Housing Association)’ example doesn’t lead to underreporting - it just skews the reports a different way. For a long term project it would make no difference.
Conversely, a pure x52 system I’d view purely as a simplification to manage workload. Especially for a project centred on, say PIP appeals, it would in all likelihood lead to a wild underreporting of results.