Help was needed for a single mum of two children, one of whom is disabled. The mum is unable to work due to being ill herself and they exist on her Employment Support Allowance, Child Benefit and Child Tax Credits. Her disabled son has recently had his disability claim denied which has left the mum unexpectedly very short of money. She is currently repaying a loan to the DWP and an overpayment of rent back to the local authority. (When benefits stop being paid for whatever reason, there is often a delay for housing benefit to catch up. When they do catch up, invariably it ends up that the claimant owes money back to the council. The claimant then has to fight to get the full housing benefit reinstated which can take weeks to be resolved.) Our agents are in the process of requesting that the regular repayment amounts to the DWP and the LA are reduced so that she can attempt to keep their heads above water.
The mum was in a predicament as she is unable to afford food and the growing children don’t have winter coats to keep them warm either. We agreed to send her £80 to help her out with this.