Help with the Cost of Living

Struggling

The current cost of living situation brings many challenges for people. If changes to your income have left you struggling to make ends meet or you were already struggling, then the first step is to see what extra income might be available to you.

Our Money Support team would be happy to help with this, and can be contacted on 020 8778 6699 or by email at moneysupport@hexagon.org.uk

The next step is to see where you can reduce your outgoings if you can.

Taking a closer look at your spending and planning a budget can really help.  The Money Helper Service has a useful tool, ‘ Money Helper Budget’ which is a good place to start. According to the Financial Journalist, Martin Lewis – ‘You can also look at whether you can get any of the services you currently use for less by ‘haggling, with your service providers.

The information of other organisations that may be able to help, have links on this page. Please note that these are external sites, and Hexagon is therefore not responsible for their content. These are provided for information only and are not a recommendation to take any action.

For residents in Southwark, Get me Back on Track – Hexagon is working in partnership with this project which aims to improve residents well-being and finances.  The partnership includes local GPs, Southwark and Lambeth Councils, five Housing Associations, Citizens Advice Southwark, and Age UK Lambeth.

www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk – One of the UKs most popular money related websites, providing information on a wide variety of subjects

www.stepchange.org.  – One of the largest free providers of telephone based debt advice in the UK

www.citizensadvice.org.uk – A source of free and impartial advice about a wide range of issues

Cost of Living Tool – A tool to help you with budgeting your finances.

Check if you are on all the correct benefits, do a benefit calculator such as https://api.betteroffcalculator.co.uk/remoteAuth/b4097ead013e97b7f716797a9242f8d93b042be2912f68b85d54dd2b4b5200d7 secondly, check if you can lower any of your bills?

Why not do a   in Magazine – Money Health Check

Each council has a single person’s discount and income-based council tax reductions. Apply with your local Council

Are you aware of Thames Water’s WaterHelp? If you’re living in a household, where the household income is below £21,749?

You could be entitled to a 50% discount on your whole bill – https://www.thameswater.co.uk/help/account-and-billing/financial-support/waterhelp

Are you paying high broadband or phone costs? You may be eligible for a social tariff? If you are on jobcentre benefits, contact your provider and ask them if you’re eligible to be moved onto this tariff.

No credit on your mobile? Hexagon have data sims that we can issue to residents over the age of 18 and without Data. Get in contact with Money Support if you need one, more info on the data sims available below.

  • Vodafone – unlimited UK calls and texts with 20GB of data.

Your food bill too high? Have you tried shopping in a social supermarket? Social Supermarkets, offer discounted food parcels, typically about £35 worth of food for a cost of around £4.00. Type in to your search engine – social supermarket in my area, to find your nearest one. If you do not have internet access call 020 87686699 and ask us for more information.

You can also check out online shops that sell discounted food that is past the best before date store.approvedfood.co.uk/best_before.