A distraught Hussain sought financial advice from St Vincent’s Leeds after he received a letter saying that his Employment and Support Allowance payment (ESA) was going to be stopped. All because he had an increase of £5 a month on his private pension.
Hussain had another letter saying that an energy arrears balance of £130 was being transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for deductions. He had no idea how this debt had been accrued as he paid on time every month. Hussain had made several calls to solve this issue, but was unsuccessful every time. Worried his payments would be suddenly stopped and that he would fall further into arrears, he sought the support of the centre.
The team worked closely with Hussain and successfully challenged the ESA payment being stopped. The team also successfully applied for a Household Support Fund payment, which was used to write off Hussain’s energy debt. He was so relieved and grateful tall his issues had been resolved that he broke down in tears.
While this case ended positively thanks to the work of our experienced debt advice team in Leeds*, many others may not be able to access such support, and risk falling into a spiral of debt.
*please note, debt advice can only be provided by experienced debt specialists. Whilst the SVP has a team of specialists in Leeds, some locations and many local volunteer groups cannot currently provide this service. In such cases please refer to our list of Debt Agencies here.