Hayley's story

Hayley, who works full-time within the social sector and also helps a local charity, had been struggling to keep up with payments and with debts as all her bills and living expenses rose exponentially due to the cost of living crisis.

 

When applying for a small loan on Moneyline’s website to help tide her over, Hayley completed a benefits check (which was integrated with Inbest) and saw a link pointing her to additional sources of support available on Lightning Reach. She was pleased to see somewhere that would help her more easily search for additional sources of support available to her and suited to her circumstances.

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“Saying it would help me find eligible support was appealing, as doing this on Google would be a minefield and take forever - but this made it clear they (Lightning Reach) would do all the hard work for me.”

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An already easy process further simplified 

 

Upon clicking this link, she was redirected to the Lightning Reach portal. When signing up and completing her profile to be matched to a personalised range of support to meet her circumstances, the already simplified process of finding support was made even easier, as many of the questions were already completed and pre-filled from the benefits check.

 

“The majority of my information had already been filled in, so I had hardly any information I needed to fill in because it carried over my details, which made it so much easier. The fact I didn't have to fill in the same details was a massive time saver. And it was much quicker than I thought it was going to be to get to the results. It was great, really helpful!”

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Upon answering only the few remaining questions, Hayley was pleased to discover many different support options available to her, including options she had not heard of previously. 

 

“I felt relieved that there were so many potential options there, and I really liked that your matches are saved and you can revisit them at any time. I was surprised to discover there is actually so much support out there, and that the results were really streamlined and accurate - it was a relief that there was light at the end of the tunnel.” 

 

Hayley gave very positive feedback about her experience using the portal to help her find different support options available to her, and about its ease of use. 

 

“It was quick, accurate and really easy to use. It was really straightforward, I knew all the information I was asked to complete and you knew what you were doing at each step. It was really simple for anyone to understand, and used no jargon. I felt very confident using it all the way through as it was so simple to use and user friendly. Even anyone without much technical experience would be able to use it.”

 

“It (the portal) is massively valuable, giving you options you don’t realise are out there, for people who think there is no way out this gives them hope.”