Community care grant refused help please :)

Shell20121

Hi all iam new here great site btw:) so I applied for a community care grant and got the letter the other day saying I have been refused my bed broke and my matress was worn done so was my pillows so I applied for new bed new memory foam matrees and two memory foam pillows I suffer with chronic cluster headaches i claim ESA and been told the memory foam pillows and matrees would help. I don't know what to do iam sleeping on a blow up bed at the moment which is not helping with the headaches this is what I have been refused for On 30th march you applied for a community care grant..... After considering your application we have decided we cannot pay you a community care grant for the follwing reason's

* we can pay community care grants to help people in cetrain cercumstances for example:
- to return to, or stay in, the community rather than having to be in care
- to return to the community from places like detention centres
- to cope with exceptional pressure on themselves and their famiys
- to set up home in the community as part of a resettled way of life
- to visit someone ill

After looking at your application and personal circumstances, we have decided that the qualifying conditions for a payment of a community care grant are not satisfied.

I can't get a budget loan because I have already had 1 last year and paying that of where do I stand now any help would be great

Shell20121

Any advice would be great x

Whiteknight

Try places like Freecycle for a bed (doubt you would get a memory foam mattress) and save up and buy the pillows yourself.

So that I don't come across as heartless you could always appeal the decision.

Mara69

At the moment, you are unable to purchase the items you want. Want, not need. I actually do not believe for a moment that your bed broke and your mattress and pillows were so worn you couldn't possibly use them.

looby75

You could apply for a budgeting loan, this has to be paid back out of you ESA but only at a small amount per week.

ETA sorry I missed the bit about you already having a budgeting loan. It might still be worth trying for another one. My sister has taken out a second budgeting loan before she'd fully paid off her first one. She had a flood in her house and had to replace flooring about 6 months after she had take out a loan for a new cooker. They simply tagged on the second loan to the end of the first one.

Shell20121

Thanks for the comments i have been told I could Benifit from the memoryfoam mattress and pillows plus mines is worn that bad the springs have came up the cloth on the mattress had them for ten years nothing made to last

BigAunty

See if there are any grants available from charities - the Turn2us website has a grant checker.

As well as freecycle, there's gumtree freebies and freegle, plus charity shops like Emmaus, etc, sometimes also local independent furniture charities.

Sounds like you don't fit the criteria for a community care grant. When does your current budgeting loan get paid back?

Shell20121

Thanks will try there I don't know will check in Monday

dseventy

Try charity shops and freecycle for a bed frame.

For the mattress I suggest you save up. Any mattress sounds like it would be better than you have.

Pillows are less than a tenner in supermarkets now, suggest you save for this.

D70

tint2000

I got turned down twice on appeal from the job centre for a community care grant i then went to independent review (IRS) and they granted me £1200. The IRS are a seperate company from job centre and they look into your claim carefully and into detail and have a big sucess rate of overturning your grant.

missapril75

Shell20121 wrote: »

I can't get a budget loan because I have already had 1 last year and paying that of where do I stand now any help would be great

Getting another loan does not mean you'd have to increase loan repayments. They recover one loan at a time, so you'd carry on paying the current one off and then repayments for the new one would take over.

You'd still have the same amount of money left as you do now.

The repayment rate on the new loan might be slightly higher because your benefit is slightly higher than last year, but you wouldn't have less money left than you have been getting.

I accept you would have been looking forward to having full benefit with no repayments to make, but if this is that important to you and you have been getting by on the benefit with the loan deducted, maybe you could carry on?