Our agents contacted us about a lady in her 50s with a heart condition, who had been registered as a carer for her sister, who sadly has now passed. While struggling to grieve, she applied for ESA but had problems maintaining contact with her doctor and is now no longer claiming. Her family have stepped in and are feeding her, but she has debt on her gas account, which means with very limited income she is struggling to meet the demands of the debt. This also means she cannot afford to put her heating on, which she needs to be able to do right now. Our agents are going to help her with her benefits, and have applied for a grant on her behalf to clear the debt, but it is not likely that they will hear back either way until the worst of this bad weather is over.
The lady was in debt with her bank account, so transferring money to her would have been fruitless, as the banks would have just sucked it up in fees or overdraft. Our agents have challenged the bank charges, which have been refunded, which has cleared the overdraft. We agreed to transfer enough money, £110 to clear the debt with the gas company, so that she can put her heating back on again.