Our contacts asked us to assist a family this time. They are a mother and father, and two children, one 11 months and one born last month, but 7 weeks premature. The youngest child was born not properly developed, and was born without a fully functioning digestive system, so has to have a colostemy bag fitted until the child is old enough to have reconstructive surgery to address its needs. They are currently living in an emergency unit and don’t have any spare money at all. They have been assisted to put in a new claim for Universal Credit, but that will take 4-6 weeks to be put into payment. They need to travel back and forth to the hospital and that costs money for bus fares, so the mother has been walking the long distance there with the children in a buggy, however the buggy is now broken and needs replacing which they can’t afford. Our agents were concerned because the mother was considering a payday loan so she could replace the buggy and have some money for bus fares. We agreed to send across £150 to allow them to replace the buggy (with hopefully a preloved one to make their money stretch further) and have some money left over to pay for the bus. They should aslo be able to apply for an advanced payment of the Universal Credit, which will arrive sooner than the 4-6 weeks.