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Help with the cost of living

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

You may find these quick videos, produced by the Consumer Council in Northern Ireland and with ideas that can be useful anywhere in our island, helpful for yourselves and others whom you know who need 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
  • 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)

 

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

 

Republic of Ireland

If you need general assistance with your finances:

  • Christians Against Poverty Ireland provides the Church with free practical financial tools, services, and money skills to enable financial well–being for their community, no matter  their background or situation. Contact can be made through the online form on its website: www.capireland.ie
  • Threshold (tenancy advice) – 1 800 454 454

 

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

 

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

 

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

  • Water (related energy efficiency advice)

Information provided by the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland.

 

  • 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.

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.

 

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.

 

 

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