New healthy rewards app will 'make huge difference in cost-of-living crisis'
A new app which will offer incentives like cinema tickets and food vouchers to people who eat healthily and exercise more will make a huge difference during the cost-of-living crisis, council bosses have said.
People have been called on to sign up for the free rewards app, which launched exclusively to residents in Wolverhampton yesterday.
The Government-backed initiative, called Better Health: Rewards App, offers a free app which people can use to order a fitness tracker, and unlock rewards when they achieve certain physical goals.
Wolverhampton Council offered the city up for the £3 million pilot scheme to improve the health of residents, which could see NHS pressures eased. There are 30,000 fitness trackers on offer to residents, with a six-week membership for those who sign up to take part.
Councillor Beverley Momenabadi, Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said: “I think that with the current climate the country is in, things are stacked against people to make those healthier life choices.
“In the cost-of-living crisis, one of the first things that people will get rid of when they are on a stricter budget is things like gym memberships, personal trainers and subscriptions to fitness apps. It isn’t costing tax-payers a single penny because we have the extra money from the government.”
“If we look at the cost of something like obesity to the NHS, in 2021 nationally it was £6 billion, and if we can support people with rewards to make those better and healthier life choices and relieve the pressure on the NHS then I think it is cost effective.”
Many businesses in the city are participating in the scheme to offer incentives, including gym and leisure centres like PureGym, Places Leisure, Complexions and WV active, and national supermarkets including Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Morrisons, Tesco and Asda.
Wolverhampton resident Tariq Ali, MBE, 54, was one of the first to sign up for initiative and thinks it will help make a difference, especially with the younger generation.
“I run a couple of youth groups in the city so I think it’s important to get the whole city engaged – get them a bit fitter and healthier,” he said. I think the incentives will encourage the youngsters, the older people probably not, but the younger people I think it will.
“I’m active, I’m involved in cricket so fitness is important to me – It’s always important trying to improve fitness in youngsters, so I got involved to encourage others around me, especially the younger generation.”
Another Wolverhampton resident Bibi Galamakis, 74, praised the scheme after she had personally benefited from improving her health during a battle against diabetes. She said: “I was diagnosed with diabetes which went into total remission, the doctors wanted to put me onto medication but within one year of changing my walking and eating habits, I’m down to a normal level without medication.”
“You know what the times are like now, nobody has any money and the grocery bills are going through the roof so this app and campaign will be good I think.”
The team from the Better Health scheme will be popping up at various locations across the city to encourage people to get involved, including Molineux. John Denley, director of public health at Wolverhampton Council, said: “We offered ourselves in Wolverhampton because we’ve got a really good track record of delivering things at pace and scale within the city, and equally we have a really good reach into communities.
“There’s so many opinions about what does work, but is there real evidence to show what actually does? This is a really good way of testing that.
“Anything that builds better evidence to see what helps is a real bonus in terms of preventing provisions to NHS services, so from a preventative measure again if we can see that it works and make a difference I’m sure that our NHS colleagues would welcome it.”
Adults aged over 18 can sign up by downloading the Better Health: Rewards app via their app store.
