Posted on 23 November 2022
Our social impact team generated £18m for our customers and their communities in 2021-22.
“We know the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and cuts to local services, while communities are still recovering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, means the support we are able to provide is more important than ever,” said Kerry Starling, Hyde’s Communities and Social Impact Director.
“Over the past year, we’ve been providing money, debt and benefits advice, supporting our customers into jobs and training, and working with our partners to deliver impactful projects to build thriving communities.”
Last year, our Communities team, together with our Advice and Advocacy programme, helped tackle homelessness and to create places where people want to live. We also delivered Hyde Charitable Trust grants and social value contributions from our supply chain partners.
“In January 2022, we secured £300k of funding from a number of donors, including an £20k contribution from Hyde Charitable Trust, for the Sylvia Beaufoy Youth Centre in Petworth, to help support young people in the area for another three years,” Kerry explained.
“We also launched our new Universal Credit Helper, a free online tool to help people applying for Universal Credit. Nearly half of those applying said they needed help to complete their application. The tool has been a great success and is now being used by 100 organisations across the UK.”
Highlights this year include:
- £887k in additional income generated for our customers
- 1,979 direct interventions preventing eviction and homelessness
- 1,458 customers received financial advice
- 305 customers received jobs and skills training
- £1.65m in social value impact was delivered through our supply chain partners
- Hyde Charitable Trust awarded 458 grants, worth £1.1m, to individual customers and community organisations
- The value of our social tenancies was £440m, shared between local authorities; police and justice; education; the National Health Service; the Department for Work and Pensions; the economy; the fire service and banks and creditors.
“We know many of our customers will be going through tough times for the foreseeable future and have plans in place to provide as much help as we can in the coming months,” Kerry added. “We’ll provide more financial support, forge stronger links with our community partners and bring more resources into those neighbourhoods that need it the most.
“For example, we’ll be setting up a £200k hardship fund to help customers affected by the cost of living crisis, and a £250k booster fund to support our community partners delivering warm hubs and food banks across our communities. We’ve also set up an Early Intervention team to work with people to resolve financial worries at the earliest opportunity.”
You can download our Social Impact report 2021-22 (PDF, 16.7MB) to find out more about our work for customers and their communities.