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I have a 12 year old called Bradley,
George is nine
and I have a little boy called Sam who's three.
George has very complex needs and
needs 24 hour care
George can be
well one day and
very poorly the next so we, as a family, work on a day-to-day basis.
Family life is very hard.
George likes to be a part of the family
and do what everybody else is doing. We all like to go out on bikes. Unfortunately George
hasn't been able to do that.
So we were looking for a trike which cost £2,206.
We were struggling to meet the needs of
finding him something that we could afford.
George's circulation is not very good, he always has to be kept warm , he's always got cold hands and feet
so the heating is our priority
and it's very hard to keep up with the bills.
Turn2Us aims to help people in financial need access the money available to them through welfare benefits ,
charitable grants and other financial help.
Turn2Us is part of the charity Elizabeth Finn Care.
Turn2us aims to bring together in one place an easy-to-use benefits checker
and grants search which gives access to over 3,500 charitable funds.
We bring that in one place; that's through our comprehensive, accessible website and also through
our freephone helpline.
Turn2us is working collaboratively with a number of organizations
such as Home-Start. Home-Start is a really good example. It's the UK's leading family
support organization
that works through its trained parent volunteers to support people in their own homes.
As a whole family they're
struggling both financially and emotionally as well, so it was identified that she
could use support .
I learned about the services
of Turn2us from my Home-Start Coordinator.
I hate computers and I'm not computer literate
but it's so easy to use and it's just
so self-explanatory, you can't go wrong.
We've heard from mums like Andrea that, for them, it's really
important they find the money that brings their family together as a unit.
That they find money to keep their homes warm.
For many families or for many individuals it could be the difference between three square
meals and two square meals
so we really need want to work as closely as we can with the organisations who support those individuals in financial need.
On my first visit to meet Andrea, we looked specifically at
the benefits checker.
Because although her husband works, she has a severely disabled child
and things are very expensive, as you can imagine.
We went through the grant search, because obviously that's open to absolutely anybody and, again, there's an awful lot of
money out there. It's just a case of finding it.
I've never had anybody come into the house and sit and go through charities,
funds, benefits.
I have never had that
in the nine years we've struggled.
We were able to identify what we were looking for, literally type that into the computer and it
would come up with the charities and the funds that were available for help.
Sue was actually able to apply there and then rather than
having to sit and draft letters up to lots of different charities. It's kept on the computer and you can just
literally go through all the charities.
It's done so much quicker and easier and a lot less hassle for the family.
I think Andrea's a really good example of the sort of person that Turn2us really aims to support.
That is because many people in financial need really aren't aware of the money that's available
to them. In fact billions of pounds goes unclaimed in welfare benefits
and millions of pounds in charitable funds are available.
Those individuals really need the support of volunteers like Sue to help them navigate their way to where that help and support is available
but also take them through the steps that are needed to find it and access it .
The first two charities that we applied for ,
the first one came back with £400 for the heating
which was absolutely fantastic.
And the second one was £200 towards George's trike.
When I'd heard that Andrea had got some funding, I thought fab!
It's just a fantastic feeling.
I really would recommend anybody to use the Turn2us programme.
£400 is a lot of money so it was a big weight off our mind.
We have to save weekly for our heating
so me and my husband were just absolutely ecstatic with £400 for our heating.
The same with the £200 for his bike. It all adds up.
It was just absolutely fantastic that we were
getting on our way.
One of the first two charities that we applied for
And it just gives you that great big 'oomph' that things are going our way
and that we are getting some help.