Helping you face the financial crisis
The cost of living crisis is causing difficulties for everyone and Great Places is committed to helping our customers through these challenging times.
Here a few useful tips and links to help you make the most of your money.
Use government approved benefit calculators
Make sure you get the benefits that you’re entitled to - www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators. It is always worth checking your eligibility as you might be missing out when you don’t realise it.
Council Tax
Check whether your property is in the right council tax band – if not, you could be overpaying.
Free prescriptions
If you are over 60 or under 16, have a continuing disability that prevents you going out without help (or have a valid medical exemption certificate) you can get free prescriptions.
Get money off grocery orders
The best supermarket discount codes are available for first time online orders at: Sainsbury’s, Iceland, Morrisons on Amazon, Coop on Amazon, Ocado and new delivery services Bother and Gopuff. Simply use all the ones you’ve not used before.
Coupon bonanza
There are often as many as 40 online coupon offers, such as £3 off vegan chicken and free £2 chocolate, available at www.moneysavingexpert.com/ deals/supermarket-coupons.
Keep food fresh for longer
Puts eggs, oranges, most other fruits and vegetables in the fridge. Leave potatoes, bananas, onions, pineapples and bread out.
Get 30% off grocery bill
Consider buying store brands. This is one way which you can save money and reduce your shopping bill.
Free food
Olio (www.olioex.com) offers free food. Instead of binning surplus food, people or stores can offer it to their local community.
'Yellow sticker' reductions
Visit your local shops to pick up reduced items on their sell-by date.
Avoid expensive calls
Numbers that begin with 084, 087,09 or 118 have high charges. The site www.saynoto0870.com will help you find cheaper alternatives.
Petrol deals
BPme Rewards, Texaco Star Rewards and Shell Go+ all let you swap points for fuel.
Drive better
Breaking heavily and driving fast all cost fuel. Check tyre pressure, remove roof racks and empty your boot (if possible), as this will improve your fuel consumption.
Sell items you don’t want
Try Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Music Magpie or WeBuyBooks.
Make money from your clothes
Use apps such as Depop and Vinted to buy or sell clothes, or maybe rent them out with apps: By Rotation, Rotaro and HURR.
Get bank cashbacks
It might be time to switch, NatWest Reward current account gives you £1 in Rewards for just logging on the app once a month. Santander 123 Lite current account gives three percent cashback on household bills. Halifax Reward gives up to 15 percent cashback on selected retailers, and £5 a month if you spend £500 on your debit card each month.
Disabled Railcard
It costs £20 a year and pays for itself in just a few journeys as you get a third off all tickets www.disabledpersons-railcard.co.uk. An Interrail ticket offers great value unlimited train travel in Europe, plus you could be eligible for a complimentary Interrail Pass for your carer www.interrail.eu/en. For other railcards, you can see www.railcard.co.uk.
Loyalty cards
Nectar, Tesco Clubcard, Boots Advantage Card and Superdrug Health and Beautycard offer points, which eventually gives you money off your shopping.
Free cash back
The free cashback app Airtime Rewards is an easy way to get money off your phone bill. Link your bank account to the app and it automatically tracks your spending at more than 100 retailers, and gives you between one and ten percent cashback at them. TopCashback and Quidco also offer cashback on purchases.
Prepayment meters
You should speak to your supplier if you have a prepayment meter and your credit is running low or has run out. Your supplier may be able to offer you a fuel voucher (a code that can be used to add credit to your gas or electricity prepayment meter). When you speak to your supplier, let them know you are in financial difficulty and explain if there is anything about your circumstances that makes you vulnerable. There are a wide range of reasons you could be in a vulnerable situation. For example, having a low income, living with a physical or mental health issue or living in a cold energy-inefficient home. Your supplier may offer you an additional support credit to help keep you on supply.
Most prepayment meters also have functions built in to provide:
- emergency credit, which provides a small amount of credit in emergency situations where you cannot top up your meter; and
- friendly-hours credit, which allows you to access a small amount of credit at times when top-up points are likely to be closed (this is usually evenings, weekends and bank holidays).
If, despite these efforts, you are still struggling economically and you need support from your local or national Government, there are several fundings available to give you an extra help. The specifics and requirements for schemes such as the Household Support Fund, Pension credit, Cost of Living Payment and many others can be found in our website www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment. Furthermore, you can clink here to know some financial programs to help you cope with the energy bills, such as the Warm Home Discount Scheme, Household Support Fund or Winter Fuel Payment.
We know that many customers are finding it harder to manage their household finances and the cost of living crisis looks set to continue over the coming months.
Customers in financial hardship will be able to apply to the Household Assistance fund for emergency financial support for shopping and household essentials, as well as school uniform costs and for white goods.
New customers who have particular vulnerabilities may be eligible for our House2Home programme which provides a range of start-up furnishings.
- Customers struggling with their fuel bills or debt can access support from our Financial Resilience team and may be eligible for a fuel voucher to help with costs.
Customers needing financial support should contact their Neighbourhood
Services Manager for an informal discussion in the first instance, or by emailing FinancialResilience@ greatplaces.org.uk