Patsy's Story

Patsy, 55, lives alone and has severe asthma and arthritis. She was furloughed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Patsy contacted us because she had very little money (her wage payments were not due until the end of the month) and she could not leave home to do the shopping as she was shielding. 

Feeling vulnerable and isolated, Patsy was anxious about the threat of coronavirus and her ability to cope on a low income. She was in insecure, low paid employment and, although furloughed, feared that her employment would end once the job retention scheme closed. 

She was also worried about her debts, as she had been making very high monthly repayments and feared not being able to pay her rent and council tax at the end of the lockdown period. We arranged for food parcels to be delivered to Patsy the next day; in addition, ingredients for preparing several hot meals were delivered to her that very evening. 

A specialist Debt Caseworker worked with Patsy to contact all creditors in order to reduce her monthly payments. Patsy was assured that if her employment were to come to an end after lockdown then we could help her maximise her income. 

We were able to provide Patsy with wellbeing support, too. During conversations with the Link Worker, Patsy mentioned that she would love to take a virtual tour of a zoo and the World Museum. The Link Worker was able to bring Patsy one step closer to fulfilling her wish by providing relevant links and information for zoo and museum virtual tours.