Safer home and over £1k saved for Derbyshire man

  • Date: 20/04/2021

Ken* was living on his own in a remote spot of the Derbyshire Dales but was recently finding it harder to get around so moved into a ground floor flat.

The 56-year-old was referred to us by Adult Social Care for his community alarm to be reinstalled in his new home. There were also some concerns raised about his unpaid utility bills.

During the first home visit, the Revival Support Worker found he had quite a few issues that he needed help with. Firstly, we couldn’t reconnect his community alarm because he didn’t have a phone line. This was made worse by the fact he only had underlay down, which was a trip hazard with his zimmer frame.

He’d also not changed his address with the old utility companies, council tax and housing benefits or banking, and hadn’t set up any payments for his new bills.

Revival contacted EE straight away to install a phone line so we could fit his community alarm and transfer it to his new home. Once that was sorted, we organised for it to be installed. To help keep him safer at home, we also helped him apply for a Government budgeting loan to cover the cost getting carpets fitted.

Next up was the issue of changing his address and setting up Direct Debit payments for his bills. Ken owed EDF Energy over £467 from his previous home so our team helped him look at how he was managing money and how he could clear these. The team managed to clear this debt and get him credit for £946 as he’d been paying for more energy than he’d been using.

While helping him with his finances, we also noticed he was paying almost £40 out a month for NOW TV and to various charities that he wasn’t aware of. We flagged these with his bank, who cancelled the payments and the fraud team are currently investigating.

Ken is now feeling happier and safer at home thanks to his community alarm, and likes the peace of mind the Direct Debits have given him. He also told us that he’s grateful his debts have been cleared and has now got the money to carpet his home.

Emily Fee, Revival Team Leader for our Derbyshire-based service said: “We’re glad our Floating Support Service has been able to support Ken to make these changes and help him sort his money – which seem small to us, but to him make a huge difference to his quality of life.

“We’re here to support anyone aged 55 or over, who receives certain benefits and needs help to stay safe and happy at home.”