The cost of living crisis is causing financial hardship and distress for far too many people that collective action is urgently required. Citizens Advice Scotland is looking for organisations to partner with us in promoting vital online financial self-help tools to ease the cost of living pressure for as many people as possible through the Easing the Cost of Living Initiative.
What is involved?
We are asking willing organisations to promote three online financial self-help tools from CAS to their audiences, customers, clients, followers, members etc through various communication routes be that written digital or hard copy e.g. website, social media, intranet, newsletters, e-bulletins, blogs or magazine. This could be a one-off piece of promotion or, ideally, something more regular. We also have a range of resources that can be used to aide communication to an organisation’s audiences.
What are the Tools? These are Money Map, Council Tax Savings and CAS Public Advice pages. These are all aimed at providing people with key information and signposting to resources that will help improve their financial health and provide critical support to people facing financial difficulty. It is important you have a look at these tools and get a feel for how they can be of use for the audiences you are able to promote these to.
Money Map
CAS have pulled together all the best online resources that can help people access support to boost incomes, save money and cut the costs of daily living and put them together into one place called the Money Map. From benefits to grants, council tax to housing, energy to food & clothing, it signposts people to the most helpful sites where financial assistance can be accessed. It also offers support and resources on better budgeting, help with banking and tips to save money. Users can create a personalised list of sources of help relevant to them, or they can browse the Money Map based on topics they need information on.
Council Tax Savings Tool
Paying council tax bills can be a challenge for many and the cost of living crisis will make these even more challenging for many more people. Yet there are ways to save money on council tax through reductions, discount and exemptions that are available for people who qualify.
This tool from CAS is aimed at helping people work out if they are entitled to any savings on paying council tax. It asks the user a series of questions about their individual circumstances and will tell them if there is any way they can reduce their council tax bill and signposts to where they can apply.
CAS Online Public Advice
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/debt-and-money/
CAS’ online advice pages provide advice on a whole host of issues, but our debt and money pages are particularly invaluable sources of help for people struggling financially, struggling to pay bills, in arrears or debt, or facing sharp rises in the cost of living.
Resources
We have produced a range of resources that organisations who wish to take part in the initiative can use to promote our online tools to their audiences. Organisations can pick and choose from these resources according to the:
- tools to promote out of the three available (it can be one, two or all three)
- resource most relevant to their audiences
- communication channel most useful for promoting the tools
For social media
- Social media toolkit including template posts
- Social media static graphics
For website, intranet, newsletters, e-bulletins, blogs or magazine
- Short article for internal use (aimed at staff members) or for external use (aimed at clients, service users, audiences) on the Initiative as a whole.
- Short article on just the Money Map internal use or an article for external use
- Short article on just the Council Tax Savings tool for internal use or an article for external use
For frontline staff
- Guide on how to use the digital tools with service users
Hard copy
- Easing the Cost of Living Leaflet with QR codes for each digital tool
- Easing the Cost of Living Poster with QR codes for each digital tool
If you haven’t already been in touch with Citizens Advice Scotland about taking part in this Initiative but are interested in doing so, please email us at costofliving@cas.org.uk and we will be happy to give you more information.