Dear Sir.
When people seek help from Helping Hands, we ask for proof of benefits/debts/sanctions and any other information which would prove that they are indeed in crisis.
We ask people that they would not give away goods which we have provided and certainly tell them that it is illegal to sell the said goods.However, we are aware that some people will do these things and we cannot judge why they’ve done this. We help people of all ages, including pensioners if they are in crisis.
Some people are unaware of the poverty in Newton Aycliffe – some Wards are within the top 10% of the most deprived in the country.Some situations which might cause people to be in crisis are redundancies, bereavements, relationship break ups, delay in paying benefits and benefit sanctions and providing extra meals when the children are on holiday from school.
These may cause people to choose whether to pay for housing or provide food and this would be particularly difficult when there are children in the family.
We aim to help people when they are in short term crisis and if these situations take longer to resolve then we are able to provide money management advice via the Christians Against Poverty (CAP) Money Course and hopefully get those people who are unemployed back into employment.
Alwyn White, Manager