Case Study 2 – Benefit Entitlement Check and Budget Planner helps householder better manage her finances and utility arrears

 Miss D had fallen into arrears with her electricity and was referred to the For Your Benefit project. Several appointments were made with Miss D but she always cancelled. Following several telephone calls with our benefits advice team, Miss D admitted that she was really struggling financially as she had lost her job due to ill health and was having difficulty repaying arrears in both her electricity and gas bills. Both companies were demanding high repayments and Miss D just couldn’t afford them and was falling further into arrears. We persuaded her to call into the office to complete a benefit entitlement check and a budget planner to try and sort When Miss D called to the office, she had already applied for benefits that she would be entitled to when unable to work due to ill health, so we just advised her to apply for help with her housing costs.

She was able to complete the forms herself. We did complete a letter for her to bring to her local Jobs and Benefit Office to request that a recent application for a Crisis Loan could be reconsidered, as she needed money to live on until her benefits were put into payment. Her main concern was paying her utility bills, as both companies were requesting high repayments for her outstanding arrears leaving very little left for other living expenses. We completed a budget planner with her, and wrote to both her electricity supplier and her gas supplier to request a more manageable repaying scheme given her current circumstances.

Both companies have since come back to Miss D and have agreed to smaller repayments, meaning that she has more money to pay for food and everyday essentials.Miss D is very happy with the new arrangements and feels she can better manage her finances. She had tried to come to arrangements with the utility companies previously, but often didn’t know how to make a realistic repayment plan. Completing the budget planner helped her to focus on what she could actually afford to repay rather than agreeing to large repayments and then defaulting on these.

Case Study 1 – Benefit Entitlement Check identifies and helps elderly couple claim an extra £375 per week.

 Mr and Mrs M are two pensioners living in Antrim, aged 87 and 82. Their only incomes were their State Pensions, totaling a modest £171.85 per week. They are both in poor health and were referred to the For Your Benefit project in September 2011 as Mrs M had fallen into arrears with her electricity. 

A member of Bryson Energy’s Benefits Advice Team called with Mrs M and carried out a Benefit Entitlement Check. This identified that they were entitled to £46 Pension Credit per week. This also entitles them to full help with their rates (worth £18.56 per week). We helped them apply for these two benefits by completing the necessary forms. Because of their health, we were considering recommending that they should apply for Attendance Allowance. However, when we were in the house, Mrs M’s son called to explain that Mrs M had dementia and that they had recently applied for Attendance Allowance for both Mr and Mrs M. We advised the son to contact us once this was awarded, as this may entitle them to additional money in their Pension Credit. Their son contacted us a couple weeks later to notify us that both Mr and Mrs M had been awarded Attendance Allowance (£129.30 per week between them). This meant that they were entitled to an extra £116.40 Pension Credit per week. They could also claim Carers Allowance for looking after each other, and after we completed these forms on their behalf, they have received a further £65.20 Pension Credit per week. 

Overall, since we have been involved with this case, Mr and Mrs M are now £375.46 per week better off. Some of this money was backdated, giving them some extra money to do some house repairs. This extra money will make a big difference to Mr and Mrs M, and as their son said in his thank you letter (below): “they can now enjoy their lives without day to day financial worries. They have used some of the money to have a new (safer) low level shower installed, replaced some very worn carpets and no longer need to worry what they will do if the boiler packs up”.They have also been referred on to the Warm Homes scheme, for loft and cavity wall insulation.