{"id":37533,"date":"2023-10-19T09:35:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T08:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?page_id=37533"},"modified":"2023-10-19T09:37:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T08:37:45","slug":"the-2023-cost-of-living-support-fund-evaluation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/about-us\/our-impact\/what-was-the-impact-of-our-cost-of-living-support-fund\/the-2023-cost-of-living-support-fund-evaluation\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2023 Cost of Living Support Fund evaluation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
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Following the success of Sense\u2019s first round of cost of living grants from the Cost of Living Support Fund<\/a>, Sense decided to do a second round of funding in March 2023. The funding was accessible to those who previously had received support from the fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This evaluation covers the second round of the grant fundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total we have 268 respondents with 218 respondents consenting to recontact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recipients of the fund who responded to the survey, were based in either England or Northern Ireland. 59% live in England, 38% live in Northern Ireland and 2% live in Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pie chart showing where people live that responded to a survey about the Cost Of Living Grant they received<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t
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Understanding the fund<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Overall people who applied to the fund found the process easy. 75% found the application process very easy and 23% found it easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bar chart showing responses to the question “How was the application process?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most recipients of the fund felt the grant they received helped them cope with the increased cost of living. Nearly three quarters of recipients (72%) said it significantly helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chart showing responses to the question “Has this grant helped you cope with the increased cost of living in the UK?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The majority of recipients of grants from the fund used the money to help with every day costs. 76% used the money for energy bills and 66% used the money for food. This is higher than the last round of the fund where 59% used the money for energy bills and 55% used the money for food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Graph showing answers to the questions “What have you used the money for?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t
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Impact of cost of living<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Overall recipients of the fund similar to the pulse survey and other research we have done are worried about the rising cost of living. 84% were very worried and 15% were somewhat worried. Only one respondent was somewhat unworried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bar chart showing how worried or unworried respondents are you about the rising costs of living\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The biggest concern in relation to the rising cost of living for people who had received the grants from the fund, with nearly all respondents (91%) was food prices. This was followed by energy costs (89%), impact on mental health (50%), Rent\/mortgage payments (29%), cost of transport (22%) and impact on physical health (4%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bar chart showing answers to the question “Thinking about your experiences, which of the following are your biggest concerns in relation to the rising costs of living?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

70% of respondents felt that the current Government support announced was not enough to help disabled people and their families with the rising costs. 23% felt maybe it was enough and 7% felt it was enough to help disabled people and families with rising costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pie chart showing answer to the question “This year the Government have announced further cost of living payments including a disability cost of living payment, to help with the rising costs. Do you think this is enough to help disabled people and their families cope with the rising costs?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Recipients of the fund also wanted more support with the rising cost of living. 82% would like to see more support for carers, 76% would like a discounted energy scheme, 76% would like improved benefits, 71% would like more financial support to help with energy bills, 48% would like to reinstate the warm home discount and 24% would like information and advice to help manage finances and save money.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":16074,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"content_label":[],"class_list":["post-37533","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37533\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"content_label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_label?post=37533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}