advice needed please

rainy12345

My family, three children aged 18, 14,and 12 and my husband have been in temporary homeless accomodation for the past two months. We have now been nominated for permanent residence with our housing association, have accepted the offer and are due to take up the tenancy next Monday. We have viewed the house and it is suitable however my concern is that there is no cooker (or hob) and all carpets have had to be removed from the house as the previous tenants used the house as an indoors bird aviary. (The housing association are in the middle of doing a deep clean on the house.) .
My husband and I are on the highest rate working family and child tax credits, HB and council tax benefit.
We have no savings to pay for a new cooker or carpets and are not able to get a loan from any other place due to having declared bankruptcy two years ago.
i have contacted the job centre plus to ascetain as to whether we would qualify for any type of grant or loan to get a cooker at the very least however they say that we need to be on Jobseekers allowance or income support to qualify. I've contacted tax credits and they are unable to offer any help.
does any one know where we turn to next? I am very concerned about not being able to feed my family proper meals and am really worrying about this.
thank you in advance for any help or advice given

ifonlyitwaseasier

try freecycle, and maybe see if there are any housing chariies nearby that sell furniture at a low price, they might do cookers.

if all else fails get a slow cooker and a microwave and go to the OS board and get a few suggestions for food

mandij30

When you move into an empty property, of course it is unfurnished.
It isn't down to housing association to provide you with ovens and fixtures and fittings. That has to be bought by yourselves. If you have lack of funds, perhaps try buying from catalogues so you can spread the payments at a more affordable rate. Or try freecycle.

I'm quite astonished really that you expect the housing association to provide these, We all have to start somewhere, Jeez I was sleeping on cardboard boxes on the floor until I saved enough for a bed. Just be thankful you didn't have to wait too long to get a roof over your head

rainy12345

mandij30 wrote: »

When you move into an empty property, of course it is unfurnished.
It isn't down to housing association to provide you with ovens and fixtures and fittings. That has to be bought by yourselves. If you have lack of funds, perhaps try buying from catalogues so you can spread the payments at a more affordable rate. Or try freecycle.

I'm quite astonished really that you expect the housing association to provide these, We all have to start somewhere, Jeez I was sleeping on cardboard boxes on the floor until I saved enough for a bed. Just be thankful you didn't have to wait too long to get a roof over your head

In what part of my post did i say that i expect the housing association to provide a cooker or carpets? I am very grateful for being nominated for a house and have nothing but good things to say about our housing association and local homeless department.
My husband and i have worked all our lives but just require a little bit of help at this point.
i cant believe that you have written such a negative comment and maybe you should rethink how valid you negative responses are on this forum. MSE is meant to be about giving advice and help not being judgemental or rude

cattie

Most local council have a furniture store where you can get most things you need after being housed after being homeless or being resettled from a hostel etc. You can get things such as appliances, pots & pans etc as well as furniture. Items are generally used but in good condition.

Contact your local council to see if they have such a facility & as another poster mentioned, keep your eye open on your local freecycle for other things you may need to furnish your new home.

kelda_shelton

rainy12345 wrote: »

My family, three children aged 18, 14,and 12 and my husband have been in temporary homeless accomodation for the past two months. We have now been nominated for permanent residence with our housing association, have accepted the offer and are due to take up the tenancy next Monday. We have viewed the house and it is suitable however my concern is that there is no cooker (or hob) and all carpets have had to be removed from the house as the previous tenants used the house as an indoors bird aviary. (The housing association are in the middle of doing a deep clean on the house.) .
My husband and I are on the highest rate working family and child tax credits, HB and council tax benefit.
We have no savings to pay for a new cooker or carpets and are not able to get a loan from any other place due to having declared bankruptcy two years ago.
i have contacted the job centre plus to ascetain as to whether we would qualify for any type of grant or loan to get a cooker at the very least however they say that we need to be on Jobseekers allowance or income support to qualify. I've contacted tax credits and they are unable to offer any help.
does any one know where we turn to next? I am very concerned about not being able to feed my family proper meals and am really worrying about this.
thank you in advance for any help or advice given

Freecycle a great idea but also - ask the housing association if they know of any local furniture recycling projects - there's quite a lot of them in Scotland not sure about Devon (your location on your profile says Devon so presume thats current) and they'll give you decent furniture and fridges and stuff like that for a much reduced rate.

Just did a quick google...

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Devon Furniture Forum [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Units 4 & 5[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Redlake Trading Estate[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Bittaford [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ivybridge [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Devon [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]PL21 0EZ[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Tel: 01752 897311 [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Fax:01752 896211 [/FONT]

Also a load more projects on this website - dont know where you are in devon so best to check yourself? http://www.dcrn.org.uk/projects/furniture.htm

But def ask the housing association too becasue often they have the best links and good advice at hand - they deal with people in your situation regulary so you'll not be the first person to ask! (I work in the sector in Scotland, so can assure you dont feel bad asking)

Citizens advice may also be able to give you an idea of loans - I know my sister was able to get loans to buy furniture when she moved into a new Housing association house after also being homeless with three kids. It really helped her. But she wasn't working sio that might be the issue you were talking about...

She also got a lot of help from barnardos - so contact the local one to you. They even had a back to work scheme in operation where guys came out and painted her kids rooms for her. She just had to buy the paint and keep them supplied with tea and biscuits! They did a brill job!

Good luck with the move and I hope you're very happy in your new home!

boo666

you can apply for a crisis loan, you do not need to be getting a qulifying benefit for this.
also CAB should know if there are local charites that can help.

kelda_shelton

boo666 wrote: »

you can apply for a crisis loan, you do not need to be getting a qulifying benefit for this.
also CAB should know if there are local charites that can help.

Now thats what my sister got.. I couldn't remeber the name till I saw it there boo666!!

googled again... heres a link...

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/WorkingAgeBenefits/Dev_013949.xml.html

So perhaps the 'helpful' jobcentre worker was wrong?

pelirocco

mandij30 wrote: »

When you move into an empty property, of course it is unfurnished.
It isn't down to housing association to provide you with ovens and fixtures and fittings. That has to be bought by yourselves. If you have lack of funds, perhaps try buying from catalogues so you can spread the payments at a more affordable rate. Or try freecycle.

I'm quite astonished really that you expect the housing association to provide these, We all have to start somewhere, Jeez I was sleeping on cardboard boxes on the floor until I saved enough for a bed. Just be thankful you didn't have to wait too long to get a roof over your head

I'm quite astonished you failed to read the opening post properly:rolleyes: Not to mention in a previous post you were asking if there was anyway you find someone to pay your deposit on a house for you?

skintandsad

Hello Rainy, and congratulations on securing a fab new home for your family :j

I can't speak of benefits/loans/grants etc, but freecycle.org.uk is wonderful.

If you are not already a member, please join, and have a look around your local area at what is being offered; if you post a wanted ad, giving details briefly of your situation (not too much personal info needed, just what you need etc), I'm sure that some lovely people will make you some offers - although you normally need to be able to collect.

Locally to me, our local carpet shop offloads loads of carpet roll ends to anyone that wants them; they think we are doing them the favour :T

I was very grateful when someone collected my daughters old garden toys, bike and electric jeep as we needed the space.

Good luck in your new home - I hope you will be very happy x

diddlepops

Hi Rainy - just sixpenneth from me. I can suggest that you contact CAB or any of your local churches/libraries and see if there is any organisation that provides furniture and electrical goods to those on benefits/without recourse to public funds. I work for a charity called Black Country Food Bank and we provide 3 days balanced nutritional meals to families in crisis on production of a voucher obtanable from SS or CAB or other agencies. In addition to this, we signpost our "clients" to Loaves & Fishes, another charity that provides beds, carpets, cookers and the like to furnish properties.

Just read back - the Devon Furniture Forum sounds like something similar. Also approach your council for a Crisis loan and they should be able to help you. Some councils also have a loan facility to purchase furniture etc.

As for the poster with the negative comments - please read back what you have written - its not very pleasant IMO.

Hugs Rainy xxxx