Posted on 23 January 2023
Our new Cost of Living Helper will help everyone during these challenging times
The cost of living crisis is affecting us all. Energy bills continue to rise, everyday essentials are become increasingly unaffordable and more and more people are needing support.
To help everyone that is struggling with rising bills, and following the success of our award-winning Universal Credit Helper, we’ve now launched our free Cost of Living Helper.
Funded by the Mayor of London and developed by our frontline staff, our Cost of Living Helper is designed to help everyone access information and support as easily and quickly as possible. It’s a pocket guide to helping anybody take their first steps to resolving hardship. It’s free, easy to use, designed to be data light, and looks best on a mobile or tablet (but also works on a laptop).
The tool was also developed with input from our customers, as well as money guidance and financial inclusion colleagues from different housing associations.
Features include:
- User-friendly with clear language
- Signposting to trusted advice and services
- Wide range of accessibility features, including translations to any language.
Kerry Starling, our Communities and Social Impact Director, said: “During November and December 2022, 92 per cent of adults reported an increase in their cost of living* and these costs are expected to rise further. Everybody is feeling the impact – whether it’s our customers or the communities where we have homes.
“The Cost of Living Helper provides vital help and support. It’s easy to use and is tailored to different audiences – whether you're a shared owner, tenant or you own your own home: Everybody could do with some support right now.
“Like our Universal Credit Helper, as well helping customers, we also wanted to come up with a solution that could be adopted across the sector. More than 100 organisations have now created their own version of the Universal Credit Helper. We want to continue to deliver support, and I’m hoping that the Cost of Living Helper will also make be able to make a difference to people’s lives.”
Use our free Cost of Living Helper
*Office for National Statistics