We were approached about a young mum of two boys, ages 5 and 3. She was previously in receipt of child and working tax credit, but had to switch over to claiming Universal Credit instead. This meant a break in her payments, resulting in her falling behind with her rent and some of her bills. She works 5 hours per week as a play assistant and is studying towards a qualification which will improve her employment options once she is qualified. She does not have access to a computer at home, so has to go to her local library and use the computers there to study. She received an advance on her Universal Credit payment (otherwise they’d have had nothing to live off), repayment for the advance is being deducted at source from her benefits, leaving her and her boys even less money. We advised our agents to encourage her to request to repay the advance over 12 months, so it lessens the monthly deductions. We also agreed to send her £100 to help her out in the meantime.