A lady came to our attention, a single mum who had recently had her abusive partner removed from their home and was facing the threat of imminent eviction. She is a student, studying full time to try to improve their long term situation as well as being a mum. She’d been having trouble with obtaining housing benefit because her council kept saying she wasn’t entitled. This is where our contact came in who spoke to this lady’s local authority and reminded them of the housing benefit rules. They then confirmed that she was entitled after all, and arrangement was made to process the housing benefit claim, which would though only be backdated so far. This resulted in a shortfall in the rent, which they expected this lady to find, which was proving almost impossible for her as she is existing on child tax credits payments only, (the child benefit was still being claimed by her abusive partner, which they are in the process of having switched back).
We agreed that we would meet the shortfall in rent so she didn’t have to worry about that, and give her some extra money to be able to buy food and clothing for herself and her two children. In all we agreed a total amount of £250. Our agent is going to continue supporting this young woman until her issues can be fully resolved.