Cost of living crisis sees recovering meth addict use new app to pay bills

More than 10 years since he kicked his drug habit, friends and family still don’t trust him with money.

Even though it’s been a decade since Andrew* smoked meth, his friends and family still don’t trust him when they lend him money.

But now with the cost of living crisis soaring, the Victorian man is struggling to pay his bills and desperately needs the help of his network.

Andrew told news.com.au the “you get quite good at coming up with lies after years of doing it”, convincing those closest to him to hand over their money for his electricity bills, car repairs and groceries, when in reality he went and spent their cash on ice.

When he was younger, the Victorian man told news.com.au he was on “most of the drugs” but then he got into the “harder” stuff like crystal methamphetamine in his late 20s.

Now 39, he managed to turn his life around after going to rehab 10 years ago and he makes $35 an hour working in garbage collection and as a landscaper in regional Victoria.

His family are now “hesitant” to give him money, unsure where he will actually spend it, but a new app called HelpPay has been life-changing for him to pay his bills.

Andrew used to be a meth addict.

Andrew was 28 when he had ice for the first time in Melbourne.

Soon he became hooked, doing it every day.

“I was never doing it before or during work. Once the workday finished, though, it was a free for all,” he explained.

His girlfriend at the time was a meth user, as were the friends he was living with, which made it harder to quit.

A year later, he and his girlfriend broke up, with both realising the relationship was “not healthy”.

This was the push he needed, checking himself into rehabilitation soon after.

When his family discovered he had been using hard drugs, they were shocked.

“They all knew I smoked weed for a long time, but they didn’t realise other things. When they saw the extent they were quite shocked.”

He says he has not touched the drug since rehab and has cut ties with a lot of the friends who he lived with.

The trust is hard to earn back from his inner circle, however.

“I would borrow money from friends and family and struggle to pay it back and spend it on the wrong things,” Andrew said.

“Instead of putting it where I said I would, it went towards drugs.”

Years later, the suspicion remains.

“Once you’ve destroyed trust it’s hard to get that back.

“I had a supportive family but they said how do we know you’re not doing the same thing.”

It was here that Andrew stumbled across an app called HelpPay

HelpPay is helping vulnerable Aussies like recovering drug users pay their bills.

HelpPay turns every bill into a shareable link and payment page.

The payment app, launched in December, allows those struggling to pay their bills to ask family and friends for financial help.

This money is then paid directly towards their bills, like the rent or electricity, rather than hitting their bank account first.

In the past, it’s been helpful for victims of economic abuse, stopping their partner from being able to drain their account and putting the money where they really need it.

And in Andrew’s case, it means his family don’t have to worry about where their money is going.

“That way they know the money is going directly to the source, it’s reassuring for them. It’s not them second guessing everything like they did before,” he added.

It comes as Alinta and Red Energy, among Australia’s top five largest energy companies, have integrated HelpPay into their payment systems as the cost of living surges.

That means 2.2 million energy users in Australia now have a more direct way to use the app.

About a third of all the bills uploaded to HelpPay are for energy-related expenses, although rent has taken the number one spot since March amid the housing shortage crisis being felt across the nation.