Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity launches critical financial wellbeing

The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity’s free App has been upgraded with nudge, the market-leading financial wellbeing platform, in response to their latest Impact Report.

One of the key findings of the recently published report was that 62% of emergency financial grants the charity commissioned were to help pay for daily living costs including buying food, paying utility bills, and clearing rent arrears and debt.

Over 50% of the charity’s construction workforce are either self-employed, agency workers or on zero-hour contracts, so when things go wrong financially, issues can quickly spiral out of control.

These findings also align with nudge’s recent research that eight in 10 (78%) employers are concerned about the impact of this year's economic environment on employees' financial wellbeing, and this problem is only set to grow.

In the current climate, the app’s new feature is yet another lifeline to the industry and focuses on the need for more preventative tools and building resilience in the areas of mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.

Working in partnership with nudge, the charity is now able to offer even more support to their construction community, just when it is needed the most.

Information and advice around money can be complex, overwhelming and conflicting but nudge resolves this by providing personalised and unbiased financial education in a simple way. With timely prompts (nudges) to take action and the tools to help people manage their money, this latest development will help people to understand and manage their money more effectively, boost their financial wellbeing and in turn their overall wellbeing.

The new feature offers:

• nudges: When there’s something people need to know or a financial action they ought to take, users are sent a personal, timely nudge to remind them.
• Education: Bite-size personalised content – boosts financial knowledge, skills and confidence.
• Tools: Money management tools help with tasks such as budgeting or saving for goals easier.

The charity’s mission is “no construction worker or their family is alone in a crisis” and this latest addition to the app certainly responds to the needs of the industry. The free app complements its 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline.

The charity has also recently announced free wellbeing training to the industry for the remainder of 2020 and this includes financial wellbeing sessions. In addition to this, the fallout of Covid-19 means an increasing number of redundancies and their free wellbeing programme now also includes two sessions aimed at improving employability.

Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity said, “With financial stress at an all-time high, it’s vital to address money worries quickly. By making all of our proactive and reactive wellbeing support services free, we hope to remove any barriers to access so that our construction workers get the help they need quickly. By doing this we move one step closer to our mission “that no construction worker or their family is alone in a crisis”.

Tim Perkins of nudge said, “We are delighted to be supporting the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity with this initiative. Our mission is to create brighter financial futures by providing people with unbiased and personalised support to develop their financial skills and knowledge. We look forward to helping to make a difference to those in need in the construction industry at this particularly difficult time.”

The free Construction Industry Helpline mobile App for Android and iOS is available to download now.