News...

Welfare Benefit Reform Advice

Hi, my name is Anne and I'm Helena's Welfare Reform Project Officer.

Since the Government announced huge changes to the way benefits are paid, we have launched a campaign to address the potential risks our tenants may face and it's my job to help you through this.

People are most concerned about reduced housing benefits for those who have more bedrooms than the Government says they need. We want to make sure our tenants don't end up in debt and know where to turn to for advice about how to deal with these changes.

This is what we are doing:

We have contacted over 600 tenants who have two bedrooms more than the Government say they need and are likely to be most affected by the changes. We are helping these tenants to budget and save money, be more energy efficient and where possible, move into a smaller property.

We are helping tenants to get back into work by running employment and skills sessions at Your Space at Helena Central. Since April 2012, more than 90 people have attended work support and IT sessions there

We will soon be collecting information from a further 1700 tenants who have one bedroom more than the Government says they need in so we can help to provide further advice and support.
We will continue to work with our tenants and partners to minimise the impact of these changes as much as possible.

If you would like further information about the Welfare Reform, help is at hand.
Helena's Money Matters team are available to support tenants with benefits and money matters advice. You can contact the team by calling Helena One Call on 01744 63 73 83.

You can also access more information on HHTV (see page 11 for instructions). From the main menu, select 'Your Services,' followed by 'Money.'

To find out more about job fairs and other events at Your Space, go back to the homepage and select 'Contact us' followed by the 'Your Space' tab.

25 June 2012

Click here to go back to press releases>