Australian workers struggling with cost-of-living pressures will be able to get cash back on day-to-day purchases under a new hi-tech program designed by digital rewards company, Loyalty Now.

Union Shopper, the rewards/mass discount arm of the Australian union movement, has added Union Shopper+ to its program, a revamped, hi-tech direct cash rewards system powered by new card-linking technology developed by Loyalty Now.

The Union Shopper-Loyalty Now partnership uses digital technology to challenge the long-standing points as rewards programs favoured by traditional models. The user, an Australian union member in the case of this program gets direct discounts turned into cash and credited back to their payment card.

"The innovative system was designed specifically for workers doing it tough with the current high inflation induced cost of living pressures," says Gary Bullock, Queensland State Secretary, United Workers Union.

Union Shopper is a 100% union-owned organisation, run solely to benefit members. It has over 100 unions across Australia already offering their combined members database of over 700,000 members access to the largest number of offers and savings.

Andrew Tait, Executive Officer, Union Shopper, adds, "A battling union member can get up to 20 per cent (depending on merchant) of a purchase as cash back, which is $40 on a $200 purchase."

Loyalty Now is a technology loyalty rewards platform that has established commercial relationships with trusted brands such as Visa, Mastercard, and eftpos. It has established a loyalty rewards platform that eliminates the barriers for members and merchants to participate. The scalable platform ensures ease of implementation, use, operation, and expansion. Having employed the contemporary use of tools, technologies, and standards, Loyalty Now promises to safeguard relevance, maintain currency, and ensure security of the platform.

Anurag Vasisth, Co-Chair and Group CEO, Loyalty Now, says, "Loyalty Now is disrupting the reward industry with its best-in-class enterprise grade technology, direct merchant supply pipeline, and frictionless card-based rewards."

There are currently more than 300 merchants offering cash back to union members, including Subway, Qatar Airways, and Robins Kitchen. That will grow as more workers sign up to the program.

Christopher Carroll, Co-Chair and Chief project Officer, Loyalty Now, adds, "It doesn't matter what card the union members use their standard bank or credit union eftpos card, Visa, Mastercard, or American Express Loyalty Now has agreements with all to credit cash back direct to the card used for the purchase."

Further, Loyalty Now has provided the highest-level security assurance powered by its Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) Level 1 certification.

"The medium-term goal is to encourage as many of Australia's union members to sign up to Union Shopper+," says Bullock.

"In turn, this will enable Loyalty Now to grow the merchant pipeline so that more and more workers get bigger and more regular cash deposits to reduce cost of living pressures."