Gerald and his wife stepped in to care for Harvey, their grandchild, when he was a young child. Sadly Harvey’s mum recently passed away, which had an impact on the family as a whole. Gerald has a chronic heart condition and his wife has fibromyalgia. Gerald did a great deal of overtime at work to pay for his daughter’s funeral costs. However, the extra work took its toll on Gerald’s health and he had no other choice but to transfer to Statutory Sick Pay. Gerald and his wife recently had to self-isolate as they are considered high-risk due to existing health conditions. This impacted the family’s income dramatically as Gerald was put on Statutory Sick Pay.
Harvey was finding it very difficult being home schooled because he did not have a laptop. He was having to research a lot of his school work from his granddad’s mobile phone, limiting his ability to study. Harvey also had no personal space to do his work. In addition to this the family desperately needed a washing machine. Before COVID-19 they did a 15 mile round trip to the nearest launderette to wash their clothes, because their washing machine had broken down.
Gerald got in touch with our advice team who made a charity application to the Buttle UK on his behalf. The application was successful and the family was awarded a laptop, printer, desk, chair, bed, wardrobe and washing machine. Gerald was also provided with advice around his benefit entitlement, which should also improve his financial circumstances.
Following the good news, Gerald e-mailed us with the photo of Harvey (featured) and said:
“Just a quick e-mail showing Harvey with his new computer and to say a big thank you – Nicola thank you so much Harvey has not stopped smiling and now he can do all his school work”.
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