Hi everyone,
Over the last week or so, our team has been talking a lot about how we can support giffgaff members as people’s behaviour changes and needs to change in response to COVID-19 coronavirus.
As a mobile network that’s entirely online, we have the ability to continue to operate largely as usual, and our community and agent teams will remain available for anyone who needs support keeping their phone working. We’ve also asked all office staff to work from home wherever possible, so that we can continue to make sure giffgaff is working as you expect and fix any issues that come up.
Some sites the giff-staffers have been finding useful are:
- Gov.uk, to see the latest government policy and advice
- NHS.uk (or your regional equivalent), to see the latest UK-specific health advice
- Full Fact, to make sure the information you’re seeing online is accurate
- Mind, to get advice on how to manage any stress or anxiety that you may be feeling right now
As of today, we have made access to NHS websites free of charge to every giffgaff member, and the NHS 111 health advice helpline will remain a free call.
Update -March 26th
Today, we’ve added a few more sites with helpful general, financial, and health advice to this list, meaning you don’t need credit or a goodybag to access them. We will continue to keep an eye on what sites people might find useful, and update this list where necessary.
Update - June 10th
Today, we’ve joined other networks in organising free access to a further selection of websites, focusing on support for victims of crime and abuse. The full list as of today:
General and financial advice
Health
Support
For those of you who are working from home yourselves, or self-isolating, it’s worth considering how your mobile needs may change. Remember, with giffgaff, based on your needs, you can choose the plan that makes the most sense for you in My giffgaff. All giffgaff goodybags have unlimited minutes and texts.
As much now as ever, a sense of community is important. While people are being asked to stay home except where essential, our community is always open for all kinds of discussion and chat, for anyone who feels isolated or lonely, whether they’re a giffgaff member or not.
Take care of yourselves and those in your community. While we might be distancing physically, we can take care to be close emotionally and stay connected.
Thanks,
Ash
Update - March 31st
Hi all, I’ve added an additional update later in the thread, that talks about a few more things we’ve been doing in the last week or two and our next steps as well.
https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33090917-giffgaff-s-response-to-covid-19-coronavirus/404
Update - April 24th
As part of our ongoing response, we’ve launched the goodybank, and announced how we’ll be helping NHS frontline workers. You can follow all of this on our Covid-19 hub.
Update - September 24th
Today, the Government has launched their NHS COVID-19 app, which I’m happy to say is free to use on giffgaff. I’ve posted about it here.
