Grant to Hope into Action:Coventry (360G-HeartofEnglandCF-A547702)

During the Covid -19 crisis we will need to do the following: • Two of the three residents have Credit Union bank accounts that charge for withdrawals and transactions so they usually get cash out once a month when benefits come through. They do not have bank cards so usually do this directly as the Credit Union is in the city centre. We will need to arrange bank cards and there is an extra charge for this. • Internet access – there is no internet access in the house. Residents are expected to carry on with job searching and keeping their Universal Credit journal updated, impossible when they don’t have access to internet and can’t afford data. The cheapest way to do this is via a dongle from a phone provider. • We also need to ‘see’ the residents remotely to assess their health as all have mental health and previous substance abuse problems. We need to purchase a tablet to enable this. Also to check the house and safety checks. • Food – we will deliver food when residents can’t get out • Utilities – card meters will also need topping up. One of the residents is currently benefit sanctioned as he was in the process of getting together documents to show to DWP when the crisis happened making it difficult to keep up with utilities.