Jo and her partner Andrew, who both struggle with poor mental health, live with their two children. They live on benefits and things have been stressful after receiving letters and phone calls from their energy supplier. They are billed for their energy, but the energy supplier has been trying to encourage them onto a pre-payment meter because of the arrears.
Jo was angry as this would be more expensive for her and would cause her difficulty with having to keep topping up her meter. We contacted Jo’s energy supplier to advocate on her behalf.
We were able to identify the problem. Jo had informed her energy supplier that her partner Andrew was moving-in, and as a result, the energy supplier cancelled Jo’s account resulting in her needing to settle the account in full. Final warning letters were also being sent. After talking to the energy supplier and explaining the situation we were able to support Jo in agreeing an affordable payment plan and arrange for the energy supplier to stop sending letters to chase the debt.
This provided Jo and Andrew peace of mind and they were able to focus on some of the other issues they were experiencing. We also discussed Jo’s water usage. The discussion uncovered an unresolved water debt. As a result, we were also able to support Jo and Andrew with their water arrears and advocated on their behalf. As a result, they engaged in a new payment plan and her debt of £264 was reduced by 50%. We also registered the household for the Priority Service Register.
Finally, we referred Jo and Andrew to a local Budgeting and Life skills course to help them manage their finances more effectively in future.
