Ben will continue to be here for the automotive community providing health and wellbeing support for automotive people and their family dependants.
In response to Covid-19 we are aiming to fast-track access to Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) specifically for individuals who reach out to us for financial or money concerns related to the current Covid-19 situation. This will include:
Reviewing personal circumstances
Working with individuals to ascertain their key financial commitments and support short to medium term planning and solutions, including (but not limited to) the following:
- Payment breaks for mortgages/housing providers, lenders
- Payment breaks for ongoing commitments such as council tax and other utility bills
- Local Authority hardship grants
- Supporting access to other charitable support or grants as applicable
Benefits maximisation
Supporting individuals to understand what they may be entitled to, how to access and supporting individuals in accessing this financial support.
Welfare grants
We will continue to distribute welfare grants, but we have reduced the threshold of eligibility related to personal savings to ensure that we can support those who are in the greatest financial need.
Following a personal review, welfare grants will be administered on a case by case basis. Right now, we can only commit to short-term, one-off urgent need grants to support individuals. This may include support for utility bills such as gas and electricity, council tax, provision of food / household goods, telecommunications, emergency fuel, essential travel costs and childcare.
Priority will be given to those individuals who are directly impacted by Covid-19 specifically related to inability to work (due to the requirement to socially distance or isolate themselves if in a vulnerable group, through illness, school or childcare closures and company shutdown).
What else are we doing?
We are currently working on plans to increase the number of people available to support enquiries through deployment of other staff groups that can’t fulfil their usual roles at this time.
We are reviewing how we can increase and fast-track access to our digital health platform, SilverCloud, to enable individuals to access self-help support programmes for issues such as anxiety, depression, resilience, stress, sleep, money worries and mindfulness activities.
We are developing further online support content which can be accessed via our website with tips, advice and tools related to:
- Managing money
- Stress, coping strategies and resilience
- Self-care during self-isolation and family isolation
- Home working
Individuals can still receive support specifically related any mental health issues they may be experiencing which includes access to mental health assessments, life coaching and telephone based counselling or other talking therapies*.
*Please note that we cannot access face to face counselling or other talking therapies at this time in line with government guidance.
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