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People with housing difficulties expect accurate and timely advice. If you are facing the prospect of losing your home, building up debts you cannot afford to pay or working out how to cope in your home, you will find this very stressful. Not knowing who to turn too or receiving advice which is too late will only add to your worries.
We have offered housing advice for many years and have been successful in helping many people to find solutions which help people stay in their homes or to find somewhere more suitable. This advice has always been provided face to face or over the telephone but now we can offer something that provides that advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week available to you wherever you can access a computer.
By logging on to Housing Help and Work Advice on line service, help is available for people directly as well as for those organisations who support people in difficulty, to understand what services are available to help address specific difficulties.
Once you have logged on and registered, you can describe your circumstances and the service will then generate a series of suggested actions to access solutions to your circumstances.
There are a range of different options to choose from. So you could simply explain your housing difficulties. But we have also included a section on money and debt, on health and support issues. We have also included a section on finding a new job or supporting you back to work.
The on line service provides advice on what we can do (or you can do yourself) and how other organisations can help.
It also provides you with an action plan which you can save or print off so you can refer to in the future. It also allows the document to be emailed to someone who might be helping you with your problems.
Getting started
On the first page register by placing your name, gender and date of birth in the boxes. Telephone numbers and email addresses are optional. The system will already be calculating options at this point so accuracy is important.
You will then be given a confidential identity number and password which can be used to log in at any time in the future. The information you enter into the system will be totally secure and can only be accessed by you as the password holder.
Your circumstances are collected over a series of pages as follows:
- Your current accommodation
- Household details
- Work situation
- Work and training
- Financial
- Additional support
- Help and advice
Please note the database of services that might be able to help you is only identified if you tick the box which says “Do you require any support or have health issues?” A new box will then appear which asks you to explain things in more detail.
If you want advice on jobs or returning to work please tick the box which is called “Work & Training Opportunities”. This will also allow you to explain the type of job you are looking for but also practical things which help support you get back to work.
Whilst we have done our best to identify all the groups and organisations who work within the District and who might be able to help, we are constantly developing the system. If you think we have missed anyone, please let us know.
We would also appreciate any views and ideas from you based on your own experience of using the system. Please contact david.clarke@babergh.gov.uk
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