Responding to the pandemic, providing the help and support you need

As we come to the close of this year, without a doubt this has been a period in time like no other for each and every one of us. The pandemic has changed people's daily lives and highlighted more than ever that the most vulnerable people in our communities need help and support.

As the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic unfolded in March 2020, our immediate priority was to divert much-needed resources to support our customers affected by financial hardship.

We have contributed £35,000 to support Local Authority Support Response Hubs, providing our customers with support in their local area.

In addition, we have:

• Set up a Great Places Emergency Fund and dealt with more than 100 applications from customers facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic.
• In partnership with third sector organisations, delivered anti-poverty initiatives such as furniture and fuel support for customers in financial hardship, including an energy switching service with National Energy Action, helping customers to make significant annual savings on their fuel bills.
• Secured a further two years of European Social Fund grant for the More Positive Together project in Lancashire, helping customers to progress into work.
• Carried out non-contact sign-ups at our properties to ensure we could still re-house the most vulnerable people without the need for face-to-face contact. This included ‘virtual’ property viewings to allow prospective tenants to see the property before signing-up.
• Provided a range of customers taking on new tenancies with essential household items, to furnish their new home.
• Made regular welfare calls to some of the most vulnerable customers in our communities. We made over 4000 calls to see if any of our customers needed any help or support throughout lockdown.
• Delivered an increased cleaning service across the majority of Independence and Wellbeing and Older Persons Schemes, to help reduce the risk of spread of infection.
• Helped 86 customers in financial difficulty through our Money Advice Service, which is available in our Equity Region. From April to November 2020, the service generated a total income of £35,435 for affected customers.

One of our customers who we were able to support was someone we will call 'Rita'.

Rita is a Great Places customer who lives alone and relies heavily on her local community centre for support and advice. Due to the current Coronavirus pandemic and the closure of the community centre, she has been struggling to access the advice she so desperately needs at this time.

Before the pandemic, Rita had her Employment Support Allowance payments stopped and a planned appeal meeting was delayed due to the lockdown measures. With no Wi-Fi at home, Rita was also struggling to access the Covid-19 mutual aid group support groups that were set up to provide support.

After contacting her Local Authority Hub for support, Rita was told to contact Great Places. She was put in contact with her Neighbourhood Services Manager. Rita was in desperate need of emergency financial support so we made an urgent referral to her local food bank to ensure she had essential supplies while awaiting income from her Universal Credit claim. Due to current delays around benefit claims and Rita’s vulnerable position, her Neighbourhood Services Manager felt that it was vital to offer further help.

They worked with Rita to explore avenues of additional support before looking to access an initial emergency cash payment of £30 from the recently launched Great Places Hardship Fund.

Her Hardship Fund request was processed within 24 hours by the Community Investment Team with the support of the Finance Team. The emergency payment enabled Rita to buy additional essential supplies while waiting for her Universal Credit claim to be paid.