Our new campaign #ThinkBiggerThanBills is about sharing what we’ve learned from the front line

Buy a new kettle (£20 to save £10 a year on electricity). Boris Johnson’s energy-saving hack raised eyebrows and guffaws back in September. But it seems positively sage when compared to the contribution of Tory chairman Jake Berry earlier this month.

Anyone struggling with their energy bills should simply “cut their consumption” or “get a higher salary”. Simple!

But as we in the sector know, it’s not simple at all. And to be fair to Berry, he later said he regretted his “clumsy” comment.

But Sophia Davis, who spoke to Quids in! Pro last month, is a case in point. When you live with disabilities as Sophia does, “cutting consumption” actually means not charging your wheelchair or plugging in your nebuliser. Maybe she could try the other one, the “higher salary”. The only problem is her sole income is ESA and PIP, and as yet we don’t know if they’ll actually be increasing in line with inflation as had previously been promised.

So no, Projects Kettle and Higher Salary aren’t meaningful ways of tackling the cost-of-living emergency this winter.

Clean Slate (home to Quids in!) has realised that this winter, the most important and impactful message we can share is the need to think bigger than bills. So central is that premise to our ethos that we’re launching a brand new campaign that we’ve called Think Bigger Than Bills. Rather than catch-all soundbites and gimmicks, it’s about taking a 360-degree look at finances and so it works for everyone.

The starting point for the financial 360 is the Quids in! Future-Proof Finance Quiz. It’s a simple and, crucially, free 25-question quiz that flags risky habits and provides a personalised action plan based on the user’s answers. Our most recent stats show Clean Slate service users made average gains of £1,000 after taking the quiz.

Budgeting is also key. The Quids in! Budget Planner divides spending into four categories –  Cannot Avoid (things like rent, council tax), Can Control (energy bills, food, fuel), Can Cut Back (shopping, clothes) and Makes Life Easier (hobbies, streaming services, holidays). Then this spending is set against total income to see if the budget balances.

The Budget Planner takes the hard work out of identifying what people spend and where the priorities should be. It’s hugely popular with the people who use our services – there’s something about seeing everything there in black and white that re-establishes a sense of agency where people may otherwise feel overwhelmed.

When looking at income, Clean Slate will never stop banging the drum about low take-up of benefits. Using a Benefits Calculator is a key part of the #ThinkBiggerThanBills message. Given that most people – even the better off – have already been trimming the fat from their household spend, cutting back doesn’t provide the breathing space it used to.

Maximising income is key. The good news is that there are often small bounties to be claimed. Many working people, for example, don’t realise that there may be state benefits available to them. Take-up of Healthy Start, which moved from paper vouchers to online last spring, was hovering around 30 per cent earlier in the year.

For the first time this winter, the £150 Warm Home Discount will be paid automatically to those who qualify (people whose electricity supplier is part of the scheme and who receive, or whose partner receives, the Guarantee part of Pension Credit). 

It’s a significant move. In situations where authorities know who should be paid, small shifts like this will help with benefit take-up. But awareness is key – and the system is complex so no one should assume there is nothing there for them. There wouldn’t be £15bn+ of unclaimed benefits every year if everyone was getting what they were entitled to.

Think Bigger Than Bills started off as conversations about what we could suggest to people on the lowest incomes when we knew that just turning down the heat wouldn’t be enough

Naomi Contopoulos, Clean Slate

Lastly, we want to continue to drive to get more people savvy and confident online to access the savings and opportunities that this brings. More than a fifth (21 per cent) of UK adults still lack these skills, locking them out of higher earnings and better deals. And we’re not talking about a couple of quid here and there; manual workers with high or very high digital engagement earn £421 more per month than less digitally engaged workers.

Clean Slate’s external communications lead Naomi Contopoulos says that cutting back here and there is no longer enough to make the budget balance. This winter, this will be true for Clean Slate service-users as well as for those who have never struggled before.

“Think Bigger than Bills started off as conversions about what we could suggest to people on the lowest incomes when we knew that just turning down the heat wouldn’t be enough,” she says.

“The key messages of the campaign reflect what we see as ‘low-hanging fruit’ that have the potential to make a real difference to people’s finances.

“We’ve chosen to launch it on 19 October to coincide with the release of the next inflation figures and to cut through the cost of living news with positive actions that people can take now.”

To find out more about Think Bigger Than Bills, and to get involved, visit the campaign page.

Main image: Dominika Roseclay / Pexels