T’s story

T is a single person living in a supported scheme managed by LQL. T has several underlying health conditions and is disabled.

Before reaching his retirement age, Universal Credit sent T a letter informing him that his Universal Credit claim would stop when he reached his retirement age. They mentioned he would need to apply for the state pension and housing benefit. Due to his disability, he didn't apply for a pension and housing benefit. He didn't know who to turn to for help and support. When his Universal Credit stopped, he started using his savings to pay the rent and soon ran into rent arrears.

What did we do?

T’s case was referred to L&Qs Successful Tenancies (TS) team, who contacted the DWP and informed them about T's situation. The team submitted a pension and pension credit claim, ensuring that T's pension and pension credit was backdated to cover the time since he reached his retirement age. T's pension and pension credit claim were then approved, and a week later, he had received the payment in his account.

T was then placed on our Breathing Space programme, which meant all arrears communication from the Income Team was put on hold for 10 weeks. 

The Success Tenancies team then contacted Housing Benefit and successfully negotiated with them to backdate the rent. The council sent a lump sum payment to L&Q, bringing T's rent account into credit.

B's story

L&Q tenant, B, has health conditions and visits the hospital frequently for continued treatment. She received Tenancy Sustainment support to maximise her income through welfare Personal Independence Payment (PIP), free NHS travel to hospital - but she was still finding life challenging due to her health conditions.  

What did we do?

After speaking with her GP and NHS consultants, it was brought to our attention that B needed help with healthy eating to help with her health and recovery. Her cooker and fridge freezer were old, inefficient, and needed to be replaced.  

As part of B’s action plan and support package, our Tenancy Sustainment Lead (TSL) applied to our Personal Support Fund for a new cooker and fridge freezer, which needed replacing. We made sure these were both energy efficient and easy to use. The fund also paid for installation and our Tenancy Sustainment Lead arranged for the disposal of old appliances.