Thread: Advice Needed

I am posting this in here because I am not sure where is best!

Through my work with DWP I had reason to meet a couple today who are in very serious financial difficulties. He is ex forces and was medically discharged, she was working full-time until early this year when she became ill and has been in receipt of statutory sick pay since. They have two young children.

They have exhausted all obvious avenues of assistance and are waiting on an appointment with a veterans association who can give them financial and benefit advice. The problem is they are in so much financial trouble they even owe money to the school for school meals that they have provided after mum had to tell them she had no money, I know this must have been very humiliating for them both.

I wondered if there was an organisation that offers practical help such as food vouchers or hampers, fuel tokens etc for ex-service personnel. I did suggest they contact the social work department as they can direct them to civvie organisations but understandably they were not keen due to the stigma that thought even conjures up.

If anyone can suggest where they can turn to I can get the info and let them know. I am really worried about them and can't sit back knowing they are at rock bottom.

Thank you in advance!!

Annie xx

I am not 100% sure on this, but maybe these guys (and gals):

http://www.veterans-uk.info/

http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/can-we-help

or maybe:

http://www.ssafa.org.uk/exService.html

Should add that someone else maybe able to help further, but they may be a good starting point.

Samm you forgot to mention ARRSE's own

Grannie might be worth dropping them an email - alot of their fundraising is done next door from site members and they have links to several of the other 'big boys' who're a little more bogged down with admin before they can give help.

Thanks Scuba

Another one

ABF

Try local Charities the one I work for offers emergency assistance with food vouchers but we are limited to a small geographical area so unless they are in Elmbridge Surrey I cant help.

There are other Charities like us though that tend to be able to help pretty fast. Just do a quick google search or the local council will know of these.

As for School meals- they should contact the school as they may be eligble for free school meals and I was under the impression these could be back dated though im not 100%. If you need any help with it pm me.

Thanks everybody!

I have passed on some information provided both here and on Arrse. Hopefully they will get help soon.

Sadly they don't get free meals, housing benefit or help with school uniforms as they don't have any means tested benefits.

A point of note to everyone - this situation came about because the main earner became ill. She is a young woman with a young family caring for her husband who has PTSD. Everything was fine up til then financially. If I could give anyone advice it would be to have some kind of insurance for sickness, her contract means that she only gets SSP and their income has dropped by about £1100 per month.

A x

When you talk to MDN he is the man who can help with all that. A man of many talents...mostly unprintable I hear! Good luck and I hope they are sorted soon. x