“I feel really happy at the moment because I know that if I’ve got any problems I can just ring her… She’s great – she’s always there when I need her.”
I grew up with my parents and my sister in the house that I live in now. When my parents died we inherited the tenancy, I really enjoy living there. I also live with my sister who has learning difficulties too. We live independently but we have carers who come and help us.
I was receiving benefits but it changed to Universal Credit. Then it just stopped and I didn’t know why. Because of my learning difficulties I struggle to understand things like paperwork and telephone conversations. I needed some help so I contacted Transform.
I feel really happy at the moment because I know that if I’ve got any problems I can just ring her… She’s great – she’s always there when I need her.
When I knew someone from Transform was coming to my house I was a bit anxious. But my keyworker was really friendly and just went through a support plan with me. We discussed what help I wanted, and then decided what we needed to do first and how we were going to do it.
My keyworker has helped me a lot with so many things; she even got me a washing machine! When I first met her I didn’t have one, I had to go to the laundrette to do washing but because public transport is very limited where I am I really struggled. So my keyworker helped me get a grant for a washing machine – I was so pleased. The first time the carers used it the washing came out smelling lovely – I wasn’t used to it!
An organisation called Optalis was helping me find a job. I had a Job Coach which was funded through the JobCentre but it was only funded for six months. When it was coming to an end and I didn’t have a job, my job coach and my keyworker worked together to liaise with adult social services at Wokingham Borough Council to try and get the funding continued and they were successful.
They also felt that I would be entitled to another benefit called PIP. So my keyworker helped me apply and even came to the meetings with me because I find them difficult. At first they turned me down but after an appeal they finally agreed and I even got it backdated. She did a really good job.
At one point I kept receiving these letters which I didn’t understand so I’d just bin them. But when I showed one of them to my keyworker she realised they were real letters about a pension I was entitled to. She’s now helping me claim that as well! She’s not allowed to give me advice on it though, so she took me to Pension Wise. They explained everything to me but it wasn’t very clear so my keyworker put the information together in a way that I could understand it and I was able to choose what I wanted to do with it by myself. She made it much easier – I don’t know how I’d manage without her.
I feel really happy at the moment because I know that if I’ve got any problems I can just ring her. In fact I’ve got something else that I need to discuss with her at the moment, I need to fill in a form but I know I’m going to struggle to understand it so I will need her help. She’s great – she’s always there when I need her.