Britain's Hidden Wealth: Unlocking £22 Billion for Families, Communities and the Economy

Every year, an estimated £22 billion in support - benefits, grants, social tariffs and community provision - goes unclaimed across the United Kingdom. Not because people are ineligible, but because the help is too hard to find. Britain's Hidden Wealth argues that one of the most powerful ways to reduce hardship is not to create new support, but to help people discover the support already meant for them. Drawing on more than fifty evidence sources, Louis Blair and Ewemade Orobator set out a practical national framework - the Discovery Society - showing how better navigation of what already exists could transform economic security for families and communities across the country. At its heart lies a simple but far-reaching idea: that alongside the money a country spends, there is a vast reserve of value already committed but never reaching the people it was designed for. Unclaimed Universal Credit. Unclaimed Pension Credit. Unclaimed Council Tax Support. Social tariffs no one has heard of. Debt relief that arrives too late. Measured together, this is not a rounding error. It is one of the largest untapped resources in British public life. The book makes the case that closing this gap requires no new spending - only better discovery, simpler navigation, and a shift from systems that wait for people to come forward to systems that reach out. It draws on published data from the Department for Work and Pensions, Policy in Practice, Ofcom and Ofgem, and sets out how proactive, data-driven support could become the norm rather than the exception. Essential reading for policymakers, funders, community leaders and anyone who believes Britain is richer than it knows.