Cost of Living

Since the 2024 Cost of Living Report, cost of living has remained one of our top priorities, and we’ve been working hard to support Hallam students:

1. Secured £11,000+ in funding for the Period Product Subscription Scheme, supplying 600 students with a year's worth of products.
2. Re-opened the Activities Inclusion Fund, helping 40 students take part in extracurriculars with £1,650 in funding.
3. Revamped our Cost-of-Living webpages into a central hub for money advice and support.
4. Grown our Cost-of-Living Shop, (now in its' third year) with 835 items swapped and over 1,000kg of food saved from landfill. We also launched a new Materials Swap Shop for students in creative courses.
5. Secured long-term support for our Emergency Food Packs, now funded for the next five years.
6. Stepped up our Cheaper Transport campaign, with student outreach, transport reform meetings, and direct conversations with South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard.
7. Held the Sheffield Students’ Assembly with MP Abtisam Mohammed, where students spoke on the financial challenges of postgraduate study.

1. Keep growing support around food costs - Build on the success of our Emergency Food Packs and Cost-of-Living Shop to increase access to affordable, nutritious food and tackle food insecurity across campus.
2. Push for cheaper travel options for all students - Keep campaigning with local leaders and transport providers to make travel more affordable and accessible (so that getting to uni doesn’t break the bank).
3. Expand healthcare support for students - Continue schemes like the Period Product Subscription and explore more ways to support student health and wellbeing in partnership with SHU and local organisations.
4. Work with SHU on better student job opportunities - Develop a strategy to help students find flexible, fairly paid work (ideally on or near campus) that fits around studies.
5. Make student life affordable and inclusive - Keep funding low-cost and free social activities and look at new ways to remove financial barriers to getting involved.
6. Call for national change in student finance - Keep lobbying the government to raise maintenance loans and income thresholds so that financial support actually reflects the real cost of being a student today.