Earned Wage Access Success Stories: Real-Life Impact in the UK

Sue replaces family loans with Earned Wage Access

Single parent Sue supports her family on a mix of income streams, specifically her monthly wage, government benefits and child support. This range of income streams complicates her cash flow management, and earned wage access has enabled her to “smooth out” the ups and downs of her personal finances. Sue often uses earned wage access to withdraw a portion of her earned pay early if her child support is late. She finds this particularly crucial at the start of term when school uniform expenses can often add up to more than expected.

She describes Level as “having replaced my Mum”. After years of borrowing money from her parents to “make it to payday”, she can now simply access her wage as she earns it. She also used to rely on her Mum for saving, giving her any surplus income in cash to save “so I don’t spend it”. Instead, she now saves directly from her wage into Level and actually earns interest. “Mum’s very happy about it,” Sue says with a giggle. Sue also says earned wage access is now part of “how I live”. “I wouldn’t leave this job, I think on-demand pay is brilliant”.

To learn about the positive business impact Earned Wage Access has had for employers, click here

Andrew replicates weekly pay

Andrew works as a waiter and withdraws £250 of his pay every two weeks, essentially using earned wage access to replicate the bimonthly pay cycle he was used to in his old job. This is because he finds it “much easier to budget” over a fortnight than a month. “That’s how my head works…I budget over two weeks because that is how I always got paid.” He previously used overdrafts frequently, which carry a risk of debt spiralling. Now, he “never uses” them, instead relying on earned wage access. This means he can manage any cash flow issues without taking on debt or risk paying interest.

Andrew confesses that, while he’s not a big spender, he’s “never been very sophisticated at money management”. But Level is helping to change that. “I love how simple and clear the app is. All the info I need is there in black and white – nothing more, nothing less.”

Les stops using payday loans with earned wage access

Les says Level has been “brilliant” for him. The last few months have been “very tough” due to rising inflation, and earned wage access has “completely stopped” him “borrowing off friends and family.” Having taken out high-interest loans in the past, Les still has a lot of debt to pay off. He enjoys the flexibility of earned wage access, especially as it works “without taking on any more debt or having to pay interest”. Encouragingly, earned wage access has “totally ended” his use of predatory and expensive payday loans (which used to be his solution to cash flow issues).

In circumstances such as these, he now simply accesses his earned wages early rather than borrowing money. When fuel prices were highest, he “literally used earned wage access to put diesel in my car to get to work”