A young lady had suffered a series of mix ups with her benefits due to having to visit her very poorly mother with very little notice, just as her Universal Credit claim was being processed. Due to an error somewhere or other her housing benefit had been stopped meaning she had rent arrears. She was advised to claim JSA and then told she would have to work 35 hours per week in a canteen in order to receive any payments. Unfortunately the lady had to give up a voluntary role that may have led to full time work in order to do the assigned canteen role, so in effect had to walk away from a possible paying job. It was all somewhat of a pickle and this is only an outline of all of the things that had gone wrong!
She received assistance from an external agency to appeal her rent arrears and we sent her £150 to lessen her stress levels while all of the mix-ups were resolved.