The Green’s story

A family was referred into MPT after struggling to manage with the overcrowding in a 2 bed house with 5 adults occupying. The financial implications of this were also having a negative effect on the household as no one in the house worked and only one adult claimed any type of benefit.

The family were in desperate need of some intervention to help them alleviate the overcrowding and to enable the adults in the house of working age to become self-sufficient. The family also faced multiple barriers to employment, particularly around the impact of their circumstances at home, very low levels of; expectation, confidence, self-esteem, motivation and direction. The MPT team individually signed up each of the household members onto the project and began to appraise the circumstances of each.

A number of immediate actions were then taken:

• Help and assistance to sign up for Universal Credit and understand the benefits system
• Two household members signed up for and IT course.
• 3 referrals onto the Active Lives programme
• CV’s updated and help with job searching, interview techniques / questions

After further development and income starting to come into the house, the MPT team continued to work with the house to achieve the following results:

• One household member got a full time job at Iceland and is now helping to contribute to the household bills.
• Another is attending CBT sessions to address her anxiety and attending ‘Active Weight’ sessions through the GP Referral scheme and rebuilding her self-confidence
• Applied and successfully obtained a level 2 apprenticeship in carpentry for another household member
• The MPT team has also helped two of the household register on the allocations system as joint applicants and begin searching for a property to lessen the impact of overcrowding at the family home.

Marie, a family member, says:

“More Positive Together has really helped our family to get back on our feet. We still have a way to go, but the help, advice and support we have received has been really appreciated and helped us to understand where we need to focus our efforts. We have especially welcomed the help with understanding the benefits system, job applications and having someone we can trust to turn to for advice and support. We are still working closely with the mentor, but would highly recommend More Positive Together to anyone else who needs support to improve their confidence, self-esteem or is looking to get back into work”