A guide to help make your experience with Universal Credit a little different.

Updated 25/08/2022 – some of the information in this article may have expired.

So far in this series, we’ve discovered more about Universal Credit, including how to navigate the benefits calculator, and how to create a monthly household budget to help us to feel more comfortable, confident, and active within our daily lives.

But with all of this good stuff, and if your like us, the feeling we get when cuts to our income come calling, are all too familiar.

In October 2022, the UK Government is ending the £20 weekly uplift, the furlough scheme, and working tax credit.

Have you made your voice heard? Have you signed the official petition to stop these government cuts to our income?

Local families like us have been using the £20 per week uplift to take our kids swimming, buying some fuel for our car, heating our homes without worry, and paying for some essential weekly groceries like bread and milk so we don’t go hungry.

The same is true for those of us on the furlough scheme, and receiving working tax credit, both of which are due to end in a matter of weeks.

In the light of these new changes, it’s so important that we remember that many of us receiving these payments are working people, and its because our wages are too low or we’re on zero-hours contracts that our earnings don’t give us enough to live on without the assistance of benefits.

It is also equally important to think of those of us who are unable to work because of health issues, family obligations, lack of training or education, lack of key resources like tools and transportation, and issues like addiction.

With so many of us having our lives impacted by these transitions, it would seem that we would benefit greatly from proactively addressing the reality to minimize its negative impact.

Maybe it is time that we as a country have to get to. a situation where everyone has a universal basic income that gives us enough to live on without having to turn to the benefits system.

We’ve all heard of Nationwide Building Society, right?

But how many of us realized that building societies, for the most part, are actually non-profits?

Building societies exist to serve us instead of being owned by distant investors, stakeholders, and other special interests.

This means all of the profits are shared with us in the form of continuously improving rates, lower fees, personalized customer service, and membership with them means our hard-earned cash stays within our local community and in turn helps to keep our local economy strong.

We recommend using non-profit banks that are, preferably, guided by a social purpose whereby a portion of their pre-tax profits is reinvested back into the local people and the local economy.

We also prefer non-profit banks that are ‘member-owned’ but whose accounts are still insured or backed by the national government.

In the U.S, the most popular form of member-owned, non-profit banks are member credit unions.

In the U.K, most of the member credit unions are better known to us as building societies, which is why we recommend them here in the U.K, for example, Nationwide Building Society.

The Nationwide switching incentive began on 18th August 2021 and is running for a limited time only.

If we switch our current bank account to a Nationwide current account, we’ll receive £100 if we are new to Nationwide and £125 if we are an existing member.

Nationwide will take care of transferring all of our payments, benefits, wages, pensions, and more for free within seven working days. And yes, we’ll still be able to access our old account while this is happening.

However, even if you choose not to switch at this time, non-profit banks like these are still worth considering whenever you are ready.

Step One: Gathering our documents. We’ll need:

• Drivers license or passport
• Name of bank or building society of old account
• Account number and sort code
• The long number on the front of the debit card
• Past 3 years address history
• If employed, share your employer’s details such as address and contact information

Head over to Nationwide to begin the switching process.

1. Scroll down and select ‘apply for FlexAccount.’ – Remember to do your own research and decide which account may be best for you. FlexAccount has no monthly fees and we will have unlimited access both online and via physical cash machines.
2. Continue to scroll down and select ‘Continue to apply for FlexAccount.‘

Decide if you want to open a joint account.

1. If yes, we’ll need to provide further details.
2. If not, we can now begin the application process.

Fill in the ‘about you’ section.

Fill in your employment, income (benefits), and arranged overdraft.

In this section, be sure to select the ‘I want to switch to Nationwide’ option to be eligible for the £100-£125 reward.

Here’s the fun part, we can now select how we want our name to appear on the front of our new shiny debit card.

For the last three sections, we can check the important information, share our ID, and follow the simple on-screen instructions to set up our digital banking in a matter of minutes.

Hopefully, you’ll feel a sense of empowerment after reading this and I bet a cuppa tea or something good like that is on your mind?

We really hope you’ve gained some value from discovering more about why it’s a good idea to consider switching to a non-profit bank. We’ll sleep better at night knowing that as we grow we’re helping our community to grow with us.

So remember to shine your own light, and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out on social media or email and we’ll do our best to get back to you.

And until next time, remember, sharing is caring.

1. Copy, Paste, and Customize this letter and send it to your local MP
   
2. Sign the Official Petition to Keep The Lifeline
3. Use This Campaigning Tool
4. Read the articles as featured in the video from The Guardian, Gingerbread, Which?, Wikipedia, and the Institute For Fiscal Studies.
5. Help with bills (Citizens Advice Scotland)
6. Perth Citizens Advice (Scotland) are always here and their friendly advisors are here for you.