We caught up with Lauren, one of our residents, and Thomas, a TSO, to find out how we helped, and how we might be able to help you too.
Lauren’s story
My kids and I moved into our A2Dominion home in July. Spelthorne Council found me the property and it’s been brilliant so far.
I spoke to Thomas not long after we moved in and he helped me apply for housing benefit. He was so helpful with the forms, and advising on how to get housing benefit. I was struggling with the rent when we moved in – I was worried I’d have to pay the whole amount on my own.
If I hadn’t spoken to Thomas, I wouldn’t have known I could get some help with paying my rent.
Thomas’s story
Being a TSO is about helping our residents access the money they’re entitled to and helping them make the most of it once they’ve got it.
The benefits system can be intimidating and confusing with all the changing regulation and legal language. But we work with housing benefits, the Department of Work and Pensions and other agencies every day, so we can use our knowledge and expertise to help our customers, like Lauren, navigate the system and get the money they’re entitled to.
We were able to help Lauren get a healthy backdated benefit payment, as well as an ongoing contribution to help her pay her rent. It’s outcomes like this for our customers that make me love my job most.
It’s not just about benefits though, we also help our residents access grants for furniture and white goods, improve their financial knowledge and skills, and reduce household bills. It’s very rewarding work.
Hopefully Lauren knows that if in the future she has any benefit or money related issues she can come to the TSO team for help. We want all our customers to know that we’re here to offer support and advice – they don’t need to be stressed about money issues.
Talk to us
If you’d like to work with one of our TSOs, just fill out our form and someone will call you back.
Like Thomas said, it’s not just about helping you apply for benefits or Universal Credit. Our TSOs can help you save money on your utilities, apply for grant funding, and work with you to improve your budgeting skills, and much more. We’re here to help.