This Client’s ESA was stopped when she was noted as “fit for work.” She rang up to appeal the decision and threatened suicide which, she told us, she had tried before. She was told in a follow-up call that her ESA was still stopped even under Appeal, and that she would need to attend her JobCentre for an interview with a view to switching to JSA.
Whichever benefit she eventually ends up with, there will be a delay and so we made £100 available to her, to help see her over the bump.
I love some of the initial responses that we get to our offers of help, because they come right out of the blue as far as many Clients are concerned. In this case the question was “What??? Is this for real? xx” followed by “Oh thank you so very much. x” when I told her that there were no strings, catches or tricks.
Then, once the job was completed, via a bank electronic transfer as we always do, I received this message, which is what makes this work so very worthwhile for us: “Hi [Rich], I got the £100 thank you so very much for helping me. I was getting worried about bills but that will help my DDs so much. xxx”
[Rich is not my real name. Keep guessing! 😀 ]