Posted on 17 January 2025
We helped a customer buy essential household appliances, so she could get debt free
Ani (not her real name), is a 20-year-old care leaver and single parent, who was referred to us for support when she first moved into her social rent home with her young son last year.
Living independently for the first time, and with English as her second language, Ani was navigating several challenges, while also attending college.
She needed support with a number of housing and repairs issues, her Universal Credit claim and in managing her bills. Ani was starting to struggle financially. She owed about £1,000 in rent, and couldn’t afford a cooker or a washing machine for her new home.
Ani was relying on takeaways and ready meals, which was costing her a lot more than preparing fresh food, and she was either relying on support from family and friends with washing machines, or spending extra money on trips to the launderette. She had to fit these around her college work and often had to take her young son with her.
We helped Ani apply for more benefits so that she would get enough money to pay her rent. She was also awarded a Hyde Charitable Trust (HCT) grant to buy a washing machine and a cooker, saving her not only the cost of the items, but also more than £3,000 a year on her laundry and cooking costs. This has meant that Ani is now debt-free and has increased her income.
‘Appliance poverty’ is a serious problem for thousands of low-income households. Appliances for cooking, washing and refrigeration can be expensive and, without them, living costs can increase significantly. Along with furniture and carpets, help for buying appliances was the second most requested support from HCT by Hyde customers last year.
The combined annual savings of the 306 appliances HCT provided funding for in 2023/24 was at least £469,000, and the value of wellbeing improvements (having clean clothes for work, being able to prepare food for those on a restrictive diet) could be as much as £2.2m. That’s almost 11 times the cost of the appliances of £202k.
Find out about the support Hyde Charitable Trust and Hyde Foundation gave to customers last year in the HCT Annual Report 2023/24 (PDF, 17MB), and the Hyde Foundation Impact Report 2023/24 (PDF, 2.18MB).
You can find lots of help and advice on our Helping Hand pages, including our cost of living helper, our Universal Credit helper, a benefit calculator and budgeting tools. And, if you’d like to speak to someone, please get in touch.