1. A trusted organisation helps you join
For the pilot, Hug&Soul plans to work with trusted organisations that can help confirm who is eligible to take part.
For Souls
Support when you need it. Choice stays with you.
Hug&Soul is being built to help people going through financial hardship receive support directly, with safe boundaries around how support can be used — while you choose the everyday things you need.
Hug&Soul is preparing for pilot testing. Joining the waitlist lets us keep you informed as access becomes available.
Who is a Soul?
Hardship can happen for many reasons.
A Soul is someone going through a period of financial hardship who may benefit from direct support through Hug&Soul.
That could include someone experiencing homelessness, a parent struggling with household costs, an older person finding it difficult to afford everyday needs, someone who has lost their income, or a person facing another difficult situation.
You do not have to fit one stereotype of what hardship looks like.
How Hug&Soul could work
The first pilot will help us test the simplest and safest way for people to receive support while keeping meaningful choice over what they need.
2. A Hug sends support
The pilot will test how someone who wants to help can send support to a Soul through Hug&Soul.
3. Safe boundaries apply
Hug&Soul is being designed so clearly inappropriate or high-risk spending can be restricted without deciding every individual thing you are allowed to buy.
4. You decide what you need
Within those boundaries, you decide how to use the support for the permitted everyday things that matter to you.
Donor trust. Recipient autonomy.
Your choices stay yours.
Receiving help should not mean giving up control over ordinary decisions in your life.
The person giving should be able to trust the system.
The person receiving should still be able to make their own choices.
You choose
A Hug does not decide each individual thing you should buy.
No strings attached
Receiving support should not give a Hug personal control over you or create an obligation to them.
Your privacy matters
Trust should come from how Hug&Soul works — not from exposing your private life to the person giving.
Everyday needs, with choices that stay yours.
Hug&Soul is exploring spending protections that allow normal everyday purchases while restricting clearly inappropriate or high-risk categories.
Exactly how these protections work will be tested as part of the pilot.
Food & groceries
Clothing
Personal care
Travel
Phone & connectivity
Household needs
These are examples rather than a final list. Pilot spending rules will be published clearly before anyone takes part.
What can a Hug see?
Trust without giving up your privacy.
A Hug should be able to know that their support reached an eligible participant and is being used within Hug&Soul’s permitted boundaries.
That does not mean they need access to the details of your private life.
Hug&Soul is being designed so that transparency proves the system is working without unnecessarily exposing individual purchasing behaviour.
Your information
We should only ask for what we genuinely need.
To operate Hug&Soul safely, some information may be required to confirm participation, provide access to support and meet legal or payment requirements.
Before anyone joins the pilot, we will explain clearly:
What information is required
Why we need it
Who can access it
How it will be used
We do not want people to provide unnecessary personal information simply to receive support.
Not everyone’s situation looks the same.
Some people may not have a permanent address, conventional identification, a bank account, reliable mobile data or confidence using digital services.
Hug&Soul is being designed with different circumstances in mind.
Some requirements will depend on the payment and verification services used during the pilot, so we will explain these clearly before participation begins.
Where possible, trusted organisations should also be able to help people through the process.
Working with organisations people already trust.
Hug&Soul is being designed to work alongside charities, outreach teams and other trusted organisations already supporting people experiencing hardship.
These organisations may potentially help with:
- joining the pilot
- verification
- understanding how Hug&Soul works
- getting help if something goes wrong
We’re starting carefully.
Hug&Soul is still being built.
The first pilot will test whether this approach can provide useful support while balancing:
Choice for Souls
Confidence for Hugs
Privacy
Safety
We will learn from Souls and partner organisations before expanding the service.
Interested in becoming a Soul?
Join the waitlist and we’ll keep you informed about the Hug&Soul pilot and future opportunities to take part.
Joining the waitlist does not automatically mean you will be eligible for the first pilot. We will explain eligibility and next steps clearly before participation begins.