One of our Money Advisors, Stephen and Rent Payment Officer, Geraldine, recently helped Mr Hussain* when he had a large amount of arrears and was recovering from a road traffic accident that left him in hospital.
*Tenant names have been changed for anonymity
What happened?
Our tenant, Mr Hussain, had been unable to work since January due to health reasons following an accident. Although he had received sick pay with a small addition of Universal Credit, it wasn’t enough to cover all of Mr Hussain’s outgoings and he was behind on his rent, council tax, utilities and other payments.
How our staff helped
Geraldine helped Mr Hussain by completing a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) on his behalf and, a few months later, the council made a payment into his rent account. This brought Mr Hussain’s rent account into credit and knowing this made him feel at much better about the situation!
Stephen told Mr Hussain about Debt Relief Orders (DRO) and Mr Hussain decided to go ahead with the application. Both Stephen and Mr Hussain sent off for a credit report to see the extent of his debts and Mr Hussain sent photos of any debt paperwork he had via email to Stephen.
There would be months where Mr Hussain would sometimes not engage, due to his health struggles, but Stephen and Geraldine worked together to keep on top of Mr Hussain’s case and continued to update his debt balances and income right up until they submitted the DRO application, 10 months later. The DRO was approved within a couple of days.
Mr Hussain’s reaction
Mr Hussain was very grateful to Stephen and Geraldine for sticking with him. After the Debt Relief Order was granted, he felt really relieved and happy to be back on track. Mr Hussain found it difficult to cope with the stress at times during the process, and he thanked Stephen and Geraldine for their patience!
If you find yourself in a difficult situation, please reach out so our teams can help you – like they did with Mr Hussain. You can get in touch with us on 0345 60 20 540 or fill out this form to contact our Money Advice Team.
