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Love2Shop Partners With Payment to Provide Vulnerable Brits with Emergency Support Amid the Cost of Living Crisis

Digital e-Code allows local authorities to efficiently deliver essential goods

Leading multi-retail redemption product provider, Love2shop, has partnered with digital payment expert, PayPoint, to help provide some of the UK’s most vulnerable residents with emergency support amid the cost of living crisis.

The new partnership will see both parties expand their range of solutions to provide local authorities across the country with a new way of servicing the most financially at-risk people within their communities.

The all-digital initiative sees local authorities equipping residents with emergency e-Codes that are selectively issued to vulnerable residents for spending in three essential categories within the Love2shop Essentials Range: Food, clothing, and electricals, and a fourth one allows users to draw upon two of the Essentials or more.

Within each of these categories, there is a select number of high street retailers from which users can exchange their Love2shop Essentials e-Code given the Love2shop choice. These include choice from Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco, Primark, and Argos.

The initiative means residents who need urgent assistance with a purchase, such as a fridge freezer or clothing, will have a way of accessing funds, while the Love2shop Essentials Range provides authorities with an efficient new alternative when it comes to supporting communities.

This type of flexible financial support is needed now more than ever, according to the experts, as the cost of living crisis continues to grip millions of UK households, with living costs soaring and prices across the board increasing at their quickest rate in decades.

That’s why Love2shop and PayPoint have worked to ensure the service is quick, simple and effective for both the user and the participating authority, which allocates which category, (or categories), the e-Code can be activated within.

Local authorities order funds online on behalf of a resident, which are delivered as an e-Code via SMS, email or in the post. Once provided to a resident via email or SMS, users go to the Love2shop website and activate or register their account, before entering the supplied e-Code.

After the code has been activated, users simply select ‘Exchange’ to view the list of available retailers, before adding a selected retailer to their basket and checking out. The retailer’s e-Gift Card will then be emailed within 48 hours.

Frank Creighton, Director of Business Development at Love2shop, said: “Love2shop is delighted to deliver the Love2shop Essentials Range for PayPoint as it strengthens its work with local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.

“When enabling vulnerable communities to receive critical funding to support them at a time when they need it most, local authorities can rely on Love2shop Essentials Range to deliver funds quickly, securely and safely.

“We provide a broad range of UK retailers through our Love2shop retailer partnerships allowing recipients of the funds to select their essential items from reliable brands, whether that’s food, clothing or electrical goods.

“As it is a digital activation and redemption process from start to finish, it is more secure than the cash equivalent, and can be used online, in addition to in-store, with the majority of the selected retailers.”

Danny Vant, Client Services Director for PayPoint, said: “This new scheme is simple for both the local authority and for the recipient of the funds. If a resident needs urgent help purchasing a new fridge, for example, the council will set up the e-Code to be used in one of four high street electrical retailers.

“However, if they need help buying food, the e-Code can be allocated for use in any one of five main supermarkets. With the cost of living crisis deepening, this type of flexible support is more important than ever, and it needs to be provided quickly to ensure the funds are available to help people immediately.”

About Love2shop

Love2shop is a leading gifting, prepayment and engagement company, and expert at creating joyful experiences and connecting people to the things in life they enjoy the most. Its purpose is to create more joy in the world by being trusted to help our customers with celebrating and rewarding. Love2shop is home to many of the country’s most-loved gifting, pre-payment and engagement solutions including Park Christmas Savings, highstreetvouchers.com and Love2shop, and is fast-becoming the home of digital innovation in gifting.

About PayPoint

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 three core business divisions.

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