We help with budgeting, provide allowances to help with essential purchases or emergencies, and help keep your important documents safe.
Your finances
We will try to help you stay on top of your finances by helping you to budget and letting you know about opportunities to build on your budgeting skills. We may also give you access to certain allowances for things like:
- your living costs if you are not eligible to claim benefit;
- a gift for special occasions such as a birthday or religious celebration;
- staying in touch with people who are important to you;
- buying essential items for your home;
- buying necessary equipment for education, training or work;
- and helping you with the cost of going to university.
In some circumstances we may also help you with the costs of childcare if this will enable you to access employment, education or training and this support is unavailable elsewhere.
If you’re on a low income or claiming certain benefits we realise that money is tight. We will help you to maximise your income ensuring you’re aware of everything you are entitled to, including council tax reductions, child benefit and universal credit.
Exceptional circumstances
We may also agree to help you with things which we would consider as exceptional circumstances if we feel it is appropriate to do so. Before you receive this support we will consider your circumstances and the assistance available to you already. If we do agree to financially assist you this will be based on your needs and recorded clearly within your pathway plan.
If you are struggling to manage whilst waiting for a first payment of universal credit we can do one of three things to help:
- provide you with a weekly living allowance which we will deduct from your setting up home allowance;
- provide you with a weekly living allowance which you pay back to us, once your payments come though;
- if you are eligible, help you to apply for an advance payment which will be deducted from your universal credit.
Your important documents
You will need various documents and forms of identification to do things like apply for housing, apply to college, claim benefits and open a bank account. To make sure you have everything you need we will support you with obtaining the following (if you have not already received these whilst you were looked after):
- your national insurance number;
- your first passport;
- your birth certificate;
- a provisional driving licence if you need this for employment, education or training.
We will keep copies of these documents and keep these safe for you, however, at certain times you will need the original documents, for example, when you set up a bank account. Once we have given you your documents, it is your responsibility to keep them safe and if you lose them, you will have to pay for replacements. If you don’t have a safe place to store your documents speak to your leaving care case worker and we will look after them for you.