Lightning Reach expands into the utilities sector to help more households access financial support

With energy debt in the UK reaching record levels, the need for simpler, faster access to financial help has never been greater.

E.ON Next has teamed up with the Lightning Reach portal to enable customers to find supprot

At Lightning Reach, our mission has always been clear - to make it easy for anyone facing difficulties to discover and access the support they’re entitled to. Until now, that’s largely meant working with local authorities, charities, and grantmakers.

But as the cost-of-living crisis continues to affect millions of households, we’re taking a major step forward - bringing our financial support platform to the utilities sector.

Making financial impact easier for energy customers

Today, we’re launching our groundbreaking new partnership with E.ON Next, one of the UK’s leading energy suppliers who serve 5.6 million customers.

Through this partnership, E.ON Next will begin using Lightning Reach to help customers in vulnerable circumstances easily discover and apply for financial support, in one trusted digital place.

For customers, this means no more searching across multiple websites or filling out endless forms. Instead, they can find out what they’re eligible for in just a few minutes, from energy grants and affordability schemes to broader cost-of-living support.

For utilities providers like E.ON Next, it’s a way to provide meaningful, compassionate help at scale - connecting more customers to the right support, faster, and with less administrative burden.

“This partnership represents a huge step towards a more connected support system - one where people don’t have to fight through red tape to get the help they deserve. By working with leading energy providers, we’re proving that technology can make compassion scalable.” - Dave Farquharson, Director of Partnerships, Lightning Reach

A blueprint for financial support in the utilities sector

This move marks the beginning of a new phase for Lightning Reach: expanding beyond individual schemes to build a connected ecosystem of support across sectors.

Our partnerships in the utilities space are already showing how technology can make a measurable difference - reducing friction for customers, improving efficiency for organisations, and ensuring that more help actually reaches the people who need it most.

By working with energy providers like E.ON Next, we’re laying the foundations for what we believe could become a new blueprint for how essential service providers support their customers - one that’s digital, proactive, and person-centred.

What’s next

This is just the beginning. Over the coming months, we’ll be continuing to grow our work in the utilities sector, developing deeper integrations and new ways to identify and reach households at risk of financial hardship.

Our goal remains the same - to make access to financial support simple, secure, and universal. Now, we’re bringing that vision to a much broader audience.

If your organisation works with customers in financial difficulty - we’d love to collaborate.

Get in touch to learn more about how Lightning Reach can help you connect your customers to the support they deserve.