For immediate release: Tuesday 19 March 2013

Dr Phil Agulnik, Director of entitledto to speak on ’ You and Yours’ on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 21 March at noon

Summary

Phil Agulnik is a Director of entitledto and before joining entitledto he worked as an economist in the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Treasury, the Financial Services Authority and in academia. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics on social security policy. He has written a number of journal articles on state pensions and benefits and, most recently, papers on reform of Council Tax Benefit.

At entitledto we help people determine what they can claim from national and local government via our self-serve calculators. Our calculators are authoritative and accurate and we are entirely independent of government. We provide a reliable estimate of benefit entitlements based on our in-depth knowledge of the UK's social security system.

By using our online benefits calculators, users can determine whether they are receiving the right amount of money in their benefit claims, whether they are eligible for other types of benefits, as well as understand what their position will be as Government welfare reforms take effect.

We believe that everyone living in the UK should be able to understand what their legitimate entitlements are and honestly claim that amount from government - social security is a key aspect of our society and a vital part of our modern communities.

We have been operating since 2000, and provide our calculators not just through our web site at www.entitledto.co.uk but also to numerous Local Government Authorities, Housing Associations, leading Charities as well as other web sites that need to provide benefit calculators to support their users, such as MoneysavingExpert.com.

Our Users 

The people that use our website come from all walks of life. More than two million households use our calculators every year to determine their benefits entitlements. The employed, the underemployed and the unemployed, pensioners, teenagers, parents and singles.

The UK government is delegating more benefits policy down to local government. So local authorities in particular are finding that entitledto calculators are an essential way to get calculations about things like Council Tax Support out to their citizens. We embed formulae tailored to the LA's own policies into our calculators. Digital by default approaches to service delivery mean that important information about benefits can be provided accurately, quickly and in a non-intrusive way to citizens at a tiny fraction of the cost of alternative mechanisms. Our calculators take the pressure off front line staff, allowing Councils to focus their attention on those with the greatest need.

Our Partners

Our professional body partners include the National Housing Federation (NHF) and the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV). We work with these organisations to ensure that local authorities and social housing providers can access high quality benefit calculators that are kept constantly up-to-date with welfare reform. 

Ends 

Press enquiries

Contact Kate by email at kate@entitledto.co.uk