Charis Newsletter – October 2021

Hello Charis Community,

We hope you like our refreshed Newsletter, we will be sending these out to you bi-monthly with news about the Shop such as new products and services, news stories of where the shop has had an impact as well as hints and tips on some of our products.

If there is anything you would like us to include or if you have something you would like to share please let us know.

To make sure you receive the Charis Newsletter directly to your inbox, please get in touch.

Meet the Charis Support Team

Many of you will have been in contact with Sue and Jodie our Charis Shop Customer Support Team either by e-mail or over the phone…..we thought you might like to know a bit more about them.

Charis Shop: Useful hints & tips for successful voucher redemption

As you and your organisation are part of the Charis Community via the Charis Shop, we believe it is important that we share best practice to ensure voucher redemption is as straight forward as possible for the end customer / client.
Here are some useful hints and tips:

• Paypoint have a webpage which provides details of stores who have recently redeemed Energy or Cash vouchers and will be familiar with the redemption process- https://consumer.paypoint.com/cashout   At the very bottom of the webpage are some useful FAQs which Paypoint have collated for store staff.
• For Post Office vouchers, the redemption outlets (Post Office Counters) can be in newsagents or other local convenience stores.  The Post Office vouchers must be taken to the indicated Post Office counter within the store which may be separate from the general shop counter.
• Paypoint and Post Office vouchers cannot be redeemed at Payzone outlets.
• Paypoint clients can call the Paypoint helpline number, 0330 400 0002, whilst they are in the store if they are having redemption problems.
• For larger value Cash vouchers, your customers / clients may have more success at larger Paypoint retailers, such as supermarkets who will have more cash available.
• All Post Office staff and branches can redeem the Post Office energy vouchers.  Although we are not permitted to provide instructions, Post Office staff have access to a helpline and training manuals via their Horizon system.
• Voucher codes should be presented as either the email or SMS message we send as these have been approved by the voucher supplier and appear in their training manuals.  Codes handed to store staff on a piece of paper do not provide the necessary details needed to allow staff to process the voucher.

Product Information

Aldi Vouchers

We are delighted that we are able to launch Aldi vouchers on the shop ahead of half term.

The vouchers will be available in values of £15 and £30 as a physical product which can only be posted out to the Purchaser for onward distribution.

Ideally, we would like to be able to offer the Aldi vouchers in an electronic format as we do with other supermarket vouchers and we will be working with Aldi over the coming months to put in place an electronic voucher product.

Co-op

Due to the increase in postal prices, from 1st October, the Admin charge for the Co-op vouchers will be £6 plus VAT.

What’s coming next

There are a number of new products we are planning to implement which we are very much looking forward to sharing with you in the coming months.  Watch this space!

We will be contacting our Charis Community as we have done previously to ask how our Platform can be enhanced, what value it has brought to you and thoughts you may have.

Reporting

Your local Administrator has access to a transactional report which provides information including details of the purchases made, who received the assistance and the expiry date of vouchers.   The status of vouchers has been available for several weeks now on the report for Paypoint vouchers – details of Post Office vouchers will follow later.

On a weekly basis Charis are uploading the status for vouchers which have been redeemed with the expired vouchers details being provided on a monthly basis.  This level of information will allow you to provide more accurate reporting to your funders and enable you to see which customers are still to use their vouchers

How Charis can help your customers

As you would expect, we are aware of the increase in energy costs, the uncertainty in the energy markets in general and the effects these will have on your customers.   Charis are here to help and support you as organisations.

Many of you have already recommended the Charis Shop to other organisations – thank you – as a way in which emergency help can reach your customers quickly.   If any of your contacts are interested in joining our community, the online Shop registration form can be found at https://shop.charisgrants.com/Application/Apply where there is also a link to find out more about the Shop and its products.

The Warm Home Discount season is upon us again and some Schemes are already open with others following shortly.  Demand for the £140 rebate is expected to be high meaning the window to apply may be short.  Information on Warm Home Discount and links to supplier forms can be found at https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme

In addition to Warm Home Discount schemes, Charis also manage other Funds on behalf on energy suppliers.   These Funds may be able to help with energy debt, white goods or boilers depending upon the supplier and the eligibility criteria.  Details and the application forms can be found at https://charisgrants.com/individuals/

It will be a difficult period for everyone over the next few months, but the Charis team are committed to helping and supporting everyone as much as we can.