Six months ago, Lydia was made redundant without notice by her employer, who was then made insolvent. As a result, she received no redundancy payment, and went from having an income, to being entirely without one, overnight.
“I was surprised to find a charity that was so specific to me.”
Investigations into available benefits showed that she was not able to access anything as quickly as she needed, and her mortgage lender informed her that they had stopped allowing payment breaks since Covid. “I was in a terrible panic with real financial anxiety,” Lydia recalls.
She initially started researching charities that provided financial advice, but during that research, learnt about the Printing Charity on the Turn2Us website. “I was surprised to find a charity that was so specific to me, with my career experience,” she explains.
Upon reading about what the charity could provide, Lydia applied both for financial assistance and one-off grants for household items which she desperately needed, but no longer had the ability to save for.
“I hadn’t had a working fridge freezer for a year,” she said. “I was saving up for one, as well as to replace my damaged carpets, but when I lost my job, all my savings had to go directly to pay the mortgage, so I had no means to meet those needs. And to top it all off, my washing machine then broke. It was just one thing after another, which made me feel very vulnerable. I had gone literally in one day from having a good salary and being able to pay all my bills, to having nothing. You never expect it.”
“For the first time in months, the financial anxiety had been lifted.”
Shortly after applying, the Printing Charity welfare team contacted Lydia to discuss her situation. She had used the Open Banking process to provide the team with secure, direct access to her bank account information, so it was easy to answer any questions.
“When the e-mail arrived to say that I would receive support, it was the biggest relief, and the best news I’d had in a long time. I rang all my family to tell them!” she recalls. “All I could think was, ‘oh my goodness, someone is supporting me’ – before the Printing Charity, I had thought I simply could not get any help from anywhere.”
“Don’t feel anxious or nervous about reaching out.”
Lydia wants anyone struggling who could be eligible for Printing Charity support to take that step and make contact. “I can’t even explain how much of an impact it has had on my quality of life. Don’t feel anxious or nervous about reaching out. I did, I thought, can I ask for this as I’ve never had to ask for money or receive support. It felt a bit scary, it’s quite hard to do that, and there’s a bit of embarrassment there as well, and I just thought “what’s the harm in trying?” – in the situation I was in, I had nothing to lose.
“The whole process ran smoothly, and all communication with the charity was supportive. What has come back to me just from writing that application, answering the questions and sending it off has far outweighed the anxiety of doing it in the first place, in terms of how much of a positive impact actually receiving the grant and the support has had.”
The conversation Lydia started with the charity led to more support than she had thought would be available for her.
Please get in touch with our friendly team to discuss your situation and find out how we can be here for you, too. E-mail support@theprintingcharity.org.uk or call 01293 542 820 Monday to Friday between 9.30am and 5pm.