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Cost of living support and advice for staff

Information and guidance on how you can save money, make your budget go further and access help and advice (updated 15 June 2023).

Jar filled with loose change
Cost of Living Support and Advice for Staff

The University is a Living Wage employer and we are very mindful of the cost of living pressures being experienced by our staff. We believe it's important to pull together as a community and look out for each other during this difficult time. As well as support being offered by government and public services, we want to play our role. This webpage is dedicated to exploring ways you can save money, make your budget go further and access help and advice.

Emergency access to your income

If you are experiencing financial difficulty and need emergency access to funds, you may be eligible to apply for up to 15% of your monthly basic pay ahead of payday. Find out further information on the payroll website.

Retail discounts

Our list of employee discounts gives details of a range of local, high street, national and online discounts available to you as a member of staff at the University.

Food

We have a variety of catering outlets and shops on campus with reasonably priced, healthy options. The Fresh and Market stores have price locks on 175 essential products, as well as price matches with the Aldi supermarket on more than 60 others.

Each week the Fresh store will also stock ingredients for a meal to Feed four people for £5, so you can cook low-cost tasty meals with friends or family. You can find the recipe and instructions on the Campus Services blog.

For the 2022/23 academic year, we are also ensuring that our outlets offer a hot meal for £1.50. These will be vegetarian and include options such as baked potatoes or chilli noodles.

The University has also signed up to ‘Too Good to Go’. Download the app so you can reserve a discounted bag of food, which may otherwise go to waste. The bags could contain items including fresh fruit and veg, chilled prepared foods, meats, cheese, sandwiches, confectionary, biscuits and snacks. Once you’ve reserved a bag, you then collect it towards the end of the day from The Market shop on campus.

Outside the Fresh shop on the Claverton Down campus, and at the Virgil Building in the city centre, we have set up Community Fridges where you can take or donate any unwanted in-date food to share with other staff and students.

You can also use the Olio food-sharing app; if you have spare food you can list it for others to collect, or pick up items from your neighbours to build food-sharing communities.

These measures are part of our University-wide drive to reduce food waste and meet our Sustainable Food Commitment.

If you find it easier to budget using cash each week, you can pay with cash at the till in the Fresh shop.

Working on campus

Many of us are now working from home at least one or two days a week. With utility costs rising, some colleagues may wish to work on campus more frequently to reduce their home bills. Our hybrid working model sets the minimum number of days that you should work on campus, but you can choose to work more if you so wish and local arrangements allow.

There will be several things to weigh up, such as costs associated with travelling or other benefits associated with working from home, and this may not be a solution for everyone.

Please discuss with your line manager in the first instance to decide what works best for you. Changing working patterns now won’t affect your ability to move back to agreed home working patterns in the future.

Travel

As a member of staff you may be eligible for a loan to cover the purchase of a season ticket for public transport.

The University also supports low cost active travel and there are a number of walking and cycling routes up to the campus, where we have secure bike storage and showers.

You can also make use of loan schemes for cycle to work, or to purchase an electric bike or motorbike.

You could also save money on fuel and maintenance through lift sharing, which also gives access to a car share parking permit.

Borrow from the Bath Library of Things

There is a ‘Library of Things’ hosted by Share & Repair in the centre of Bath. Members can borrow items including tools, garden, baking and camping equipment and more. Find out further information on their website. You can also take broken items to a Repair Café where a repairer can check them and try to mend them.

Job opportunities

If you are working part time and are looking for additional work then you can sign up to be notified of new roles being advertised.

Wellbeing and counselling

We understand that the rise in living costs may be stressful or causing you additional anxiety. It's important to know that you're not alone and that help is available. If you're struggling, or know of others who may be struggling, please reach out and ask for help.

If you need urgent wellbeing support or are concerned about the wellbeing of a colleague or student, please refer to our urgent or emergency wellbeing support resources.

Financial wellbeing

"Financial wellbeing is about feeling secure and in control. It’s about making the most of your money from day to day, dealing with the unexpected, and being on track for a healthy financial future. In short: financially resilient, confident and empowered." − Money and Pensions

MoneyHelper

MoneyHelper provide free advice and tools to help you manage your finances and pension and deal with money problems (provided by the Money and Pensions Service).

MoneyHelper is available to make your money and pension choices clearer by cutting through the complexity to explain what you need to do and how you can do it. You can chat to MoneyHelper for free advice and support via phone, webchat, text or web form. Useful tools and support include:

  • Budget Planner Tool: This free Budget Planner puts you in control of your household spending and analyses your results to help you take control of your money. It’s already helped hundreds of thousands of people
  • Budgeting and managing your money: Advice on running a bank account, planning your finances, and cutting costs
  • Help with scams: Advice for spotting, avoiding and recovering from scams

StepChange debt charity

StepChange is the UK’s leading debt advice charity. They help hundreds of thousands of people each year deal with their money worries with free, impartial and non-judgmental advice.

StepChange provides free, impartial and non-judgmental advice. Visit their website or call them on 0800 138 1111 (Mon-Fri 8am-8pm/ Sat 8am-4pm) to take the first step towards taking back control of your finances. They also have a range of web resources you can explore including:

  • A debt library for everything you need to know about debt
  • Breathing Space information pages: to explain how the 60-day statutory Breathing Space scheme works and whether you could be eligible
  • Life changes guide: to help you if you have experienced financial difficulty due to a change such as bereavement, long term illness, divorce or separation, or job loss
  • Emergency funding: to give details of where to get help now and over the longer term if you've had cash crisis
  • A guide to paying off a persistent debt: to provide help building a budget
  • Debt stress guide: to help you deal with the stress debt causes.
  • Cost of living crisis pages: to provide support dealing with bills, emergency funding and dealing with the rising cost of living

Further debt support

  • The Debt Advice Foundation is a registered national debt advice and education charity offering free, confidential support and advice to anyone worried about loans, credit and debt
  • National Debtline provides free and independent debt advice over the phone and online
  • Turn2us is a national charity providing practical help to people who are struggling financially, including a helpline

Further advice and support

Cost of living