Boost – Barnet Homes

About Barnet Homes

Barnet Homes, through their BOOST project, was awarded Household Support Funds to distribute to vulnerable Barnet residents ages 18 to 54. The purpose of this fund is to provide support to the most vulnerable residents with food, energy, water, as well as wider essentials such as white goods or transport costs for a job interview or medical appointment. 

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The challenge

Previous fund distribution processes for BOOST – Barnet Homes employed methods that presented several challenges:

• Inefficient for staff resources to distribute the funds
• No ability to distribute funds in bulk, meaning considerable time was required to perform repetitive tasks
• Slow processing for direct to bank transfer of five to seven days
• Unsecure payment methods posed threats of fraud
• High administrative times and costs to distribute funds to those in need
• No guarantee or confirmation that the funds were used for the intended purpose
• Slow processing for direct to bank transfer of five to seven days

BOOST needed a new provider that improved the fund distribution process internally to create efficiencies, save time and send funds securely. They also required a method that would allow them to confidently and quickly support vulnerable clients in need. 

“I needed a more secure and efficient and scalable way of distributing the funds to the clients, as the traditional methods did not always work well for us.”

– Milena Symanek | BOOST – Barnet Homes

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The solution

BOOST discovered Evouchers through an internal recommendation within Barnet Council from a family services department with similar responsibilities. The referral came with positive experiences on how they had been able to streamline their distribution process, which is exactly what Barnet Homes were looking for. 

Evouchers has improved BOOST’S household support fund distribution significantly through the easy-to-use platform:

• Evouchers enables BOOST to send support immediately, meaning those in need can be supported instantly
• Vouchers can be purchased in bulk and distributed on a one-to-many or individual basis
• Greater flexibility of processes means funds can be distributed as and when they are needed
• BOOST now save hours of administrative time previously spent on the distribution of support

“Bank transfer usually takes us from five to seven days whereas Evouchers awards can be issued instantly”

– Milena Symanek | Boost – Barnet Homes

Thanks to the platform’s reliability and flexibility in support offerings, applications can also be responded to and fulfilled much quicker than their previous methods. This means BOOST are able to allocate resources to other valuable tasks and those in need can receive support exactly when it’s needed.

“The platform is definitely user-friendly and reliable. We didn’t have any issues. It integrates well with the processes we currently have.”

– Milena Symanek | Boost – Barnet Homes

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The Impact

Evouchers offers greater flexibility in the types of support that can be provided to those in need such as supermarket vouchers for food and essentials, or top-up vouchers towards electricity costs. This increased flexibility has been hugely beneficial to the residents of Barnet and as a result, has helped strengthen the relationship between BOOST – Barnet Homes and the community.

Using Evouchers has also minimised the risk of fraud since the support can be sent directly to those in need and can only be redeemed by the intended recipient. These features, alongside the restrictions on some vouchers, such as a grocery-only voucher, ensure BOOST can be confident the funds are used for their intended purpose.

The easy-to-use platform is built with simplicity in mind, which is demonstrated through the ability to distribute funds in bulk, export common reports needed for analysis and streamlined processes that allow different vouchers to be placed within the same order. This, alongside the automatic reminders and UK-based support team available for our customers and recipients, means Barnet Homes and many other customers save time on administrative burdens. 

“It definitely reduced the amount of admin we had when we were doing the manual transfers and increased the turnaround of the applications for the clients, which is crucial.”

– Milena Symanek | Boost – Barnet Homes