Success

Water Arrears

Mrs K from Bolton was suffering from depression and some other medical illnesses, Mrs K had a leak in her bathroom, but due to her medical conditions and the fact that the leak was into her bath and wasn’t causing any damage she never reported it. Mrs K has a water meter and incurred debt of £1000+. Mrs K was advised and aided by our Financial Inclusion 0fficer to apply for the United Utilities Trust Fund and was awarded £1,400 towards the arrears.

Gas Arrears

Mrs T from Bolton was not utilising her gas pre payment meter as she couldn’t afford to as she was having a debt deducted from the meter. Mrs T was also having problems keeping up with repayments for her late husband’s funeral costs. Mrs T was suffering from depression and couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel. Mrs T was aided by our Financial Inclusion Officer to apply for the British Gas Trust Fund and was awarded £363.68 to clear her gas arrears and also £2059.14 to clear the monies owed for her late husbands funeral costs.

 
Housing Benefit Overpayments

Mrs P from Sale was struggling to maintain priority bills and priority arrears payments. Mrs P was having a housing benefit overpayment deducted from her ongoing housing benefit entitlement. With assistance from our Financial Inclusion Officer she was aided to complete an income and expenditure form to demonstrate she was unable to repay the Housing Benefit Overpayment at its current rate of recovery and it was reduced from £9.90 per week to £5.00 per week, maximising the residents income by £254.80 per year. Mrs P was also referred to Citizens Advise Trafford to see a Welfare Benefits Advisor to sort some specialist advice.

 

White Goods

Mrs Z from Bury was referred to the Financial inclusion Officer as she had rent arrears and was due to be served with a court warning letter, the customer had indicated that she had also fell behind with other priority bills. The Financial Inclusion Officer organised a number of home appointments with this customer and helped her secure just short of £900.00 towards her water arrears and also a cooker from the United Utilities Trust Fund as the customer was not in a position to afford a new cooker and there was 5 people living in the property. Mrs Z was also referred to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) for specialist debt advice of which she found to be an extremely useful service.