seAp – a charity that helps patients, benefits claimants and others ensure their views are heard – has won a national award for an app which guides people through applying for Employment Support Allowance or Personal Independence Payments.

seAp’s strategic services development manager Liz Fenton, who was instrumental in the development of the C-app, accepted the Charity Times award for best use of technology, at a ceremony in London earlier this week. The small, Hastings-based charity, which spent a year developing the app, was up against competition for the award from much bigger national organisations, including Age UK and the National Trust.

The app was funded by The Legal Education Foundation, as part of its remit of using technology to help people use and understand the law. It also received funding from Comic Relief.

seAp primarily serves the local community around Hastings, but C-app is intended to make its expertise and support available to disability and work capacity claimants nationwide.

Liz Fenton said developing the app had been ‘a true team effort’ and ‘a mammoth task’.

TLEF chief executive Matthew Smerdon said: ‘It’s wonderful to see seAp receiving national recognition for the vital work it is doing to help people through what can be a daunting and confusing process.’

TLEF’s 2017 annual review – due to be published later this year – will include a detailed case study of the development of seAp’s C-app.