Miss B is a single mother with two teenage children. She is a tenant of Midland Heart Housing Association who had applied for a warrant to evict her and her family for non-payment of rent arrears. As a consequence, they were at risk of becoming homeless.
Miss B works part-time and receives Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit. Because of the level of her income she does not receive full Housing Benefit. She had struggled for some time to meet her priority expenditure and had been unable to maintain rent arrears payments under a previous court order. Her arrears had increased to around £3,000 because a discretionary housing payment that she had been receiving had stopped without her realising.
Miss B had applied to suspend the eviction process and had to attend court. On the day of the hearing she sought assistance from our County Court Welfare Office. We represented her at the hearing and argued her case, with the result that the eviction was suspended on condition that she pay the current rent, plus £3.60 per week towards her arrears.
We helped Miss B to apply for a further discretionary housing payment. This application was successful and helped towards her rent arrears.
Miss B was extremely relieved to keep her family together in their home and was very grateful for the support we gave her.
