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Financial Hardship Support

A calm route through a money crisis: the shortfall measured, food, heat and housing protected first, hardship schemes, food banks, grants and breathing space claimed, and a way back out when income recovers.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Financial Hardship Support, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

Before you start: this plan is general information to help you organise your own money decisions. It is not financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Check decisions that matter with a qualified, licensed adviser in your country, and remember that investing and trading can lose money.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

202

Starter tasks

💷 Personal Finance

Financial Hardship Support

Using hardship schemes, food banks, grants and creditor breathing space when income falls below essential costs.

  1. Essentials shortfall figure for this month
  2. Seven-day crisis triage list
  3. Crisis contacts and free advice sheet
  4. Bare-minimum budget for roof, heat and food
  5. Hardship evidence folder
  6. Local hardship support map
  7. Telling your bank you are in financial difficulty
  8. Separate basic bank account for incoming money
  9. Statutory breathing space through an approved adviser
  10. Food bank referral and first visit
  11. Friday cash and essentials check
  12. Support applications tracker
  13. Hardship arrangement expiry calendar
  14. Prepayment meter credit routine
  15. Cupboard and food parcel meal plan
  16. Monthly hardship budget reset
  17. Twice-weekly post and email session
  18. Money stress check-in with someone you trust
  19. Charitable grant search sessions
  20. How local crisis and welfare assistance schemes work
  21. How energy and water hardship funds work
  22. What a breathing space moratorium does and does not stop
  23. How charitable and occupational benevolent grants work
  24. What has to happen before disconnection or eviction for arrears
  25. Advance payments and emergency loans and what they cost later
  26. Energy arrears grant application
  27. Water bill assistance scheme application
  28. Local tax hardship reduction application
  29. Local crisis payment for food or fuel
  30. Grant for a broken fridge, cooker or bed
  31. Covering a short gap with an advance, family loan or credit union
  32. Employer or union hardship fund request
  33. Reducing benefit deductions to an affordable level
  34. Data, phone and hygiene essentials at no cost
  35. 48-hour response to a disconnection or eviction notice
  36. First payday after the gap
  37. Winter hardship preparation
  38. School holiday food gap plan
  39. Three-month hardship review with an adviser
  40. Support for families with children in hardship
  41. Hardship support while caring for someone
  42. Hardship support with a health condition or disability
  43. Hardship support for people over pension age
  44. University hardship fund application
  45. Self-employed hardship when work dries up
  46. Rent arrears hardship plan with your landlord
  47. Emergency money after leaving an abusive relationship
  48. Supporting a friend or relative through a money crisis
  49. Complaint when a supplier ignores hardship rules
  50. Stepping off hardship support as income recovers

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Essentials shortfall figure for this month

When money runs short it is easy to feel that everything is unaffordable, which makes it impossible to ask for the right help. Listing the income you can count on this month against rent, energy, food, water, local tax and travel gives one shortfall figure, and every adviser, grant form and hardship team will ask for exactly that number.

First tasks

  • List every payment due to reach your account this month with its date
  • Write down rent, energy, water, food, local tax and travel at real amounts
  • Subtract essentials from income to get the shortfall figure
  • Save the figure in a note on your phone for calls with advisers

Seven-day crisis triage list

In the first days of a crisis, the danger is not the total owed but the few things that will cause real harm within a week: no food in the house, a meter about to run out, a court date, a missed prescription. A short list of what is due in the next seven days, sorted by harm rather than by who shouts loudest, tells you where the little money you have must go first.

First tasks

  • Write down everything due or running out in the next seven days
  • Mark each item with the harm caused if it is missed
  • Choose the three items that must be dealt with first
  • Put a day against each of those three actions

Crisis contacts and free advice sheet

Searching for help while panicking leads straight to paid debt firms and lookalike sites that charge for what free services give away. One sheet with a free debt advice charity, a welfare benefits adviser, your local council's crisis support line, the nearest food bank referral route and a mental health crisis number means the right door is one call away.

First tasks

  • Find a free debt advice charity and save its phone and webchat details
  • Look up your council's crisis support or local welfare assistance page
  • Add the nearest food bank and the agencies that can refer you
  • Save a mental health crisis line on the same sheet
  • Check every number on the sheet still works @recurring(yearly)

Make it yours.

Install Financial Hardship Support, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.