Published: 19/11/2021 , Last updated: 15/02/2023

Responding to the cost of living crisis

On this page, you will find the following resources which may be helpful for you, or your friends, relatives and neighbours in this time of pressure.  Please click on the links below to find out more:

• Helplines
• Price comparison websites
• Leaflets with helpful information
• Guides to how parishes can help

Helplines

Please do not hesitate to seek help if you need this.  If your request is urgent, the following key helplines may be useful, covering Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  To find out more about each organisation or service before you call, please click on their name to be taken to their website.

Northern Ireland

If you need general assistance with your finances:

• Advice NI (including referrals to foodbanks) – 0800 915 4604

• Christians Against Poverty – 0800 328 0006

• Consumer Council – 0800 121 6022

• Make the Call – 0800 232 1271 (Make the Call is a service from the Department for Communities to help you check if you are missing out on any benefits, services and other forms of support to which you are entitled)

• Housing Rights – 028 9024 564

• Money Helper (financial advice service) – 0800 138 7777

• NI Energy Advice Line – 0800 111 44 55

• National Energy Action (fuel poverty charity) – 0800 304 7159

• Step Change (debt relief charity) – 0800 138 1111

• St Vincent de Paul (Northern Ireland regional office) – 028 9035 1561

• St Vincent de Paul (Derry office) – 028 7126 5489

If your family needs help with school–related costs, you can get in touch with the Education Authority through these helplines:

• Free School Meals & Uniform Grant – 028 9041 8044

• Home to school transport – 028 9598 5959

• Special educational needs – 028 9598 5960

• General queries – 028 9056 4000

Republic of Ireland

If you need general assistance with your finances:

• Protestant Aid – 01 668 4298

• Threshold (tenancy advice) – 1 800 454 454

• Money Advice and Budgeting Service – 0818 07 2000

• Competition and Consumer Protection Commission – 01 402 5555

• Commission for Regulation of Utilities – 1800 404 404

• Department of Social Protection – a listing of all social protection helplines is available at www.gov.ie/dspphonenumbers

If your family needs help with school–related costs, you can seek assistance through these helplines:

• School Meals Scheme – 071 9157100 / 071 9138625 / 071 9138626

• Clothing and Footwear Allowance – 071 91 93318 / 0818 111 113

• Home to school transport – 057 932 5469 / 057 932 5466

• National Council for Special Education – a regional listing of contacts for Special Educational Needs Organisers is available at www.ncse.ie/seno–contact–information

If you would like to seek help from the Society of St Vincent de Paul, please call the regional office which serves your county:

• Dublin, Wicklow & Kildare – 01 855 0022

• Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Waterford & Wexford – 051 3507 25 or 26 or 28

• Cork & Kerry – 021 4270 444

• Clare, Limerick, Offaly & Tipperary – 061 317 327

• Galway, Mayo & Roscommon – 091 563 233

• Donegal, Leitrim & Sligo – 074 9173 933

• Cavan, Longford, Louth, Meath, Monaghan & Westmeath – 041 987 3331

Price comparison websites and guides

These links may be useful in comparing prices and setting budgets, whether you live in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

For householders in Northern Ireland

• Budgeting

• Broadband

• Diesel & Petrol

• Electricity & Gas

• Food (shopping)

• Home heating oil

• Insurance

• Postage

• Public transport

• Water (related energy efficiency advice)

Information provided by the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland.

• Budgeting

• Contracts & Services

• Driving

• Energy saving advice

• Housing

• Insurance

• Shopping

• Water (leaks & conservation)

Information provided by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities.

Cost of living leaflet

This leaflet from our Church and Society Commission highlights sources of help and support for households responding to the cost–of–living crisis.  The leaflet is available in versions for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and guides readers to where they can seek help when they are experiencing problems with debt and personal finances, energy and household costs, and buying food.

Parishes are welcome to download and print the leaflet, which gives room for including local information and words of encouragement and compassion, either on a space provided for this purpose or as an insert.

• Northern Ireland version

• Republic of Ireland version

Introducing the leaflet, Archbishop Michael Jackson writes:

‘The circumstances of everyday living are spinning out of the control, and indeed the grasp, of more and more people.

‘Escalating prices mean escalating hardship. Coping from month to month now means coping from day to day. These contacts are designed to help you, and anyone with whom you wish to share this information, in coping discreetly and on your own terms. People who never thought they would be in such a position as this are making choices to exclude essentials from their lives, not luxuries.

‘If this is where you, or any of your friends and neighbours, find yourselves please seek help sooner rather than later. Help is there, and I hope that you will make the contact to connect with a source of help who will be ready to listen to and support you.’

How can we help?

Inside Out Outside In is a collection of ideas to help churches think about different ways to engage with the community.  These are grouped into the following themes: Outreach; Community; Welcome; Fellowship; Children & Youth; Families; Senior Citizens; Schools; Poverty; and Communication.  The booklet can be downloaded in full, including an encouraging introduction sharing how your local church can bring hope in your community, or in separate files covering each section.

• ‘The local church is the hope of the world’

• Outreach ideas

• Community ideas

• Welcome ideas

• Fellowship ideas

• Children & Youth ideas

• Families ideas

• Senior Citizens ideas

• Schools ideas

• Poverty ideas

• Communications ideas

Practical Action on the Cost of Living is a booklet with suggestions for how parishes, and other ministries and similar organisations in their local communities, can help to serve people in need at this time.  The booklet summarises a discussion hosted by the Church and Society Commission in which representatives from dioceses shared stories about how their parishes are proactively responding.  Several examples were put forward about what more can be done, along with ideas for the best overall approaches for responding locally.

Printed copies of the Church and Society Commission’s Cost of Living: Helpful Information leaflet, are available on request from diocesan offices.  The leaflet’s format gives room for including local information and words of encouragement and compassion.

The information on this page is provided on behalf of the Church and Society Commission to assist with the Church’s pastoral response to the cost of living crisis.  The Church of Ireland is not responsible for the content of external websites.