Aldi and B&M boosts Love2shop Essentials emergency support scheme for vulnerable

• UK local authorities, housing associations, and others, can offer emergency cost of living support to most vulnerable through Love2shop Essentials
• The scheme, in partnership with PayPoint, helps people in financial crisis purchase food, clothing, electricals and other critical items via digital e-code
• High street giants Aldi and B&M have now joined the Essentials scheme, helping recipients make their support go further

Families facing a financial crisis due to the rising cost of living may be eligible to receive Love2shop Essentials emergency support payments, which has now just added Aldi and B&M – helping their money go further.

Love2shop Essentials is a partnership between gift card experts Love2shop and digital payment specialists PayPoint. Designed for local authorities across the UK, Love2shop Essentials is an e-code that councils can use to give financial support to the most vulnerable in times of need.

After a successful pilot last August, the scheme has now expanded, adding discount giants Aldi and B&M to the list of more than 20 Love2shop Essentials partners – which includes Currys, Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco, Primark and Argos.

Jo Toolan, Client Services Director for PayPoint, said: “The Love2shop Essentials scheme is simple for both the local authority and people and families who receive support.

“If a resident’s fridge breaks unexpectedly for example, the council can set up the e-code to be used only with one of Love2shop Essentials’ high street electrical retail partners.

“However, if they need help buying food, the e-code can be allocated for use in any one of our partner supermarkets. With the cost-of-living crisis continuing to have a significant impact, this type of targeted, flexible support is more important than ever to provide immediate help to those in need.”

Codes can be used online or in-store – depending on the retailer – to purchase items in three core categories – food, clothing and electrical.

Local authorities order funds for specific amounts for a resident, which is then delivered to them as an e-code via SMS, email or in the post. Once the code is received by the resident, they simply go to the Love2shop website to activate the supplied e-code.

Frank Creighton, Director of Business Development at Love2shop, said: “Love2shop Essentials is an exceptionally practical and easy-to-use tool for local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales.

“Helping PayPoint to provide access to a broad range of UK retailers allows recipients of the funds to select their essential items from reliable brands, whether that’s food, clothing or crucial household electrical goods.

“Adding Aldi and B&M as partners gives people and families more choice in these critical need categories, helping ensure they have the support they need when times are tough.

“As a digital activation and redemption process, Love2shop Essentials is more secure than the cash equivalent and can be used online or in-store with most of its partner retailers.”

 

ABOUT LOVE2SHOP

Love2shop – part of the PayPoint Group – is the UK’s number one multi-retailer gifting provider. Its range of Love2shop Gift Cards, e-Gift Cards and Gift Vouchers offer consumers the choice to spend at more than 140 high-street and online retail partners.

As well as personal gifting, Love2shop products are widely used in customer and employee engagement and consumer incentive programmes to provide recognition and rewards that offer real value to the recipients.

Love2shop also provides holiday gift vouchers through Love2shop Holidays and single-retailer gift cards for some of the high street’s biggest names – from Marks and Spencer to John Lewis.

Love2shop Gift Cards are flexecash products regulated by the FCA. Flexecash is the pre-paid card platform which issues Love2shop Cards. This facility is provided by Park Card Services Ltd who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 [90001] for the issuing of electronic money.

Discover more: www.highstreetvouchers.com

 

ABOUT PAYPOINT GROUP

For tens of thousands of businesses and millions of consumers, we deliver innovative technology and services that make life a little easier.

The PayPoint Group serves a diverse range of organisations, from SME and convenience retailer partners to local authorities, multinational service providers and e-commerce brands. Our products are split across four core business divisions:

In Shopping, we enhance retailer propositions and customer experiences through EPoS services via PayPoint One, card payment technology, Counter Cash, ATMs and home delivery technology partnerships in over 60,000 SME and retailer partner locations across multiple sectors. Our retail network of over 28,000 convenience stores is larger than all the banks, supermarkets and Post Offices put together

In E-commerce, we deliver best-in-class customer journeys through Collect+, a tech-based delivery solution that allows parcels to be sent, picked up and dropped off at thousands of local stores

In Payments and Banking, PayPoint helps companies, and their customers make and receive payments quickly and conveniently. This includes PayPoint’s digital payments platform, MultiPay, and a digital voucher offering that provides vital consumer access to cash across our extensive retail network. PayPoint also supports its eMoney clients with purchase and redemption of eMoney across its retail network

In Love2shop, we provide gifting, employee engagement, consumer incentive and prepaid savings solutions to thousands of consumers and businesses. Love2shop is the UK’s number one multi-retailer gifting provider, offering consumers the choice to spend at more than 140 high-street and online retail partners. Park Christmas Savings is the UK’s biggest Christmas savings club, helping over 350,000 families manage the cost of Christmas, by offering a huge range of gift cards and vouchers from some of the biggest high street names.

Together, these solutions enable The PayPoint Group to create long-term value for all stakeholders, including customers, communities and the world we live in.

Discover more: www.paypoint.com