How Housing 21 Streamlined Support with Huggg

Housing 21 is a leading, not-for-profit provider of Extra Care and Retirement Living for older people of modest means. The organisation operates in 240 local authority areas, and manages over 22,800 properties, providing over 38,000 hours of social care each week.

Housing 21’s vision is to provide high quality housing with support or care to older people who need it most, whilst ensuring residents remain involved and empowered so the services provided meet their individual needs and preferences, now and in the future.

As the cost-of-living crisis continues to spiral in the UK, Housing 21 is growing to keep pace with the support requirements that are received on a weekly basis. 

The Challenge

Three years ago, retirement living housing company, Housing 21, set up an internal scheme allowing residents to apply for a support grant to help with the cost-of-living increases. But back in 2022, the way the scheme was administered was time consuming and laborious for the Strategic Operations Team, who were using credit cards to buy supermarket vouchers and then distributing them manually to applicants.

At the time, the Strategic Operations Manager was hosting a Ukrainian family who received a text to their mobile phone, which allowed them to withdraw £50 from the Red Cross at certain cash machines. On establishing who had administered this, it was a light bulb moment for Cressida, when she looked up who Huggg were and how the Helping Hands Fund could be better organised through the use of their online vouchers.

The Solution

The team started to work with Huggg in order to streamline the team’s approach. They made a manual, laborious process, quick, easy and manageable as a result.  Previously it was taking the team around an hour to work on each application (if not longer in some cases) but with the Huggg platform this reduced to around 10 minutes. With some months generating over 130 applications, the time saving has been transformational.

The Huggg platform is free of charge and enables them to send groceries, clothing and/or home essentials vouchers to recipients across the community. Each recipient can decide which retailer they will spend their voucher with, giving them power and dignity of choice. Huggg also provides seven-day support to both its client organisations and recipients.

Nikki-Leigh Dipper, Strategic Operations Officer at Housing 21 said of Huggg: 
“As part of the Resident Engagement and Experience team I get to see first-hand what a difference these vouchers make to vulnerable older people in our communities. Working with the Huggg team has been fantastic. From our initial demo to the daily management of the platform, the team has been supportive and extremely responsive to any queries that we have. Having all the relevant information and application forms in one place has also simplified the process for our residents. They understand that Huggg is our trusted partner and are happy to receive vouchers this way.  The platform has enabled us to simplify our internal processes, and with an increase in the number of applications this has been a lifeline for us.”

If you want to see how Huggg can help with your support management, get in touch and chat to us today.