Help and support for financial difficulties

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Financial difficulty can be experienced at all life stages. The rising cost of living, job loss, illness, debt or loss of a loved one can affect us all. If you're struggling, we want to help you find the right support for you.

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Cost of living support

Essential costs like food, energy and rent are rapidly rising which can impact your financial situation and force you to have to cut back on your outgoings.

Everyone’s circumstances are different, but here are some simple tips that can help you with where to start.

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First steps to help you get on top of things

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• Housekeeping

  Make sure you know what savings and investments you have and who to contact for information about them. You may have options that you didn’t know about.

• Plan ahead and budget

  Get a realistic picture of your income and outgoings and what additional expenses you might have over the next few months. Consider cancelling or renegotiating contracts to cut out any unnecessary spending. MoneyHelper has a useful budget planner tool that can help with this.

• Review existing credit arrangements

  If you’re paying a high rate of interest on credit card repayments then check for balance transfer offers. And if you’re struggling to make repayments on a mortgage or other loans, talk to your provider to find out what they can do to help until you’re in a better financial position. You may be able to extend the terms of your loan, adjust repayment amounts or take a payment holiday.

• Check if you’re eligible for government support 

  If you’re on a low income, not working or unable to work, you may be entitled to claim universal credit. You can find out about other government support that’s available here.

• Be wary of scams

  Criminals are using these uncertain times to scam people online and over the phone. Find out more about how to protect yourself.

How we're supporting our customers

We’re here to help you understand the choices you have with your Standard Life plan, so you feel able to make the right decisions based on your circumstances.

Our team are trained to treat every customer individually and assess how we can help them. Here are some of the ways we’ve been helping our customers:

• We’ve helped customers to take a short-term break from paying into their pension plans or other products they hold with us (a payment holiday) or reduce the amount they’re paying in to give them time to get on top of their finances.
• For customers who are already accessing their pension savings, we’ve made sure their payments get to them as quickly as possible to help pay urgent bills.
• Where appropriate, we’ve given customers information about other organisations and support services that can help them – see the helpful resources section below for more on some of these.