The Rapid Recovery Challenge was a £3 million Challenge delivered in partnership with JPMorgan Chase Foundationand Money and Pensions Service. It was funded by Nesta. It aimed to support the millions of workers in the UK who have been affected by the economic shock resulting from COVID-19. There were two distinct streams to the Challenge – job recovery and financial recovery.
The financial recovery stream focused on helping low-paid workers or those in insecure work, who were struggling financially to access much needed finances through a variety of means.
In December 2020, 14 semi-finalists (seven in each stream) each received £125k. In May 2021, six finalists (three in each stream) each received £150k. In September 2021, two winners (one in each stream) each received £200k.
Alongside the funding we also provided non-financial support in the form of communications and media strategy, human centred design, end user testing, business and scaling strategy all delivered by best in class partner organisations.
We also supported our innovators to scale by forming the Rapid Recovery Network and by funding three community outreach organisations (Big Issue, Do It Now Now and Youth Federation) to share tools directly to their audiences.
Our winner for the financial stream was Hastee. Hastee is a financial health platform that allows workers to withdraw a portion of their pay as soon as they have earned it, breaking the outdated fixed pay-cycle that forces many into debt and financial stress.
IncomeMax is an Independent personal money advice service to help you take control of your finances. IncomeMax Messenger will help more people to maximise their income, pay their bills, and overcome debt issues. IncomeMax Messenger is designed to help vulnerable customers, who prefer to talk digitally, access expert advice on our own private platform.
“Our tool is for people struggling to cope financially and falling behind on their bills and payments. People can use it to maximise income and have more money in their pocket to pay bills and write off debts.”
“Now customers will be able to choose how they speak to one of our trained experts. If they prefer to talk, we can schedule a call. If they’re busy at work or caring for the kids, they can message us in their own time and receive helpful support in response.”
Turn2us‘s digital grants platform enables people in financial hardship to apply for support more quickly and securely, receive a grant decision sooner and get on a faster road to financial recovery. Charities and public sector institutions can use the platform to verify financial need and accelerate support to individuals in need.
“This tool is for individuals seeking financial support, as well as grantmaking organisations which provide financial help to them. It provides a much quicker, user friendly and more secure way to access the financial information required to make a grant decision, streamlining manual processes and minimising paperwork.”
“It “speeds up the process completely” and is “very simple”, “straightforward and easy”.”
Hastee is a financial health platform that allows workers to withdraw a portion of their pay as soon as they have earned it, breaking the outdated fixed pay-cycle that forces many into debt and financial stress. We have used the Nesta Rapid Recovery Challenge to add a personalised financial education tool into our suite of features and are making it completely free for a year to 16-24 year olds in the UK.
“Our tool can be used by any type of worker who wishes to improve their financial health, be that full-time, part-time, shift, gig, or temporary. Hastee users have visibility of their real-time earnings, can withdraw a portion of this amount on demand, and can access personalised financial education embedded into our app.”
“Its intuitiveness. Hastee breaks down that artificial barrier that has been created between effort and reward: through Hastee, you can work that extra shift at the pub and immediately be rewarded for your efforts. There’s no waiting around for payday.”
Alongside the Challenge we worked with The Social Market Foundation to learn as much as we can from our innovators and the wider finance and employment landscape. We co-produced a learning and key recommendations document which we hope will support those looking to innovate further (be that in government or elsewhere) in the area of finance and employment particularly with vulnerable audiences such as those on the Rapid Recovery Challenge. Visit our blog which summarises the report or download the full report via the link below.
