Right well I had
this a few days ago which meant that a number of avenues to help would have been shut off to me, for example, help with rent and council tax. Generally without tax credits you are no longer eligible for this type of assistance.
Yesterday, a very nice woman from the housing dept phoned in her role as finance advisor to council tenants. She was less than pleased with the DWP for ruling me ineligible, so told me she would phone me back after doing some research into the issue of rent and council tax. She called me back this morning to say that she had managed to secure full support for both items as I am on such a low income. She also emailed me a number of links to further assistance for which she thinks I would qualify, and urged me to follow them up.
We had a great conversation about what was available by way of help, and then discovered that we are both runners. She has a dog as well and was very interested in the idea of canicross! She went off after talking with me, to look up the subject with a view to giving it a try.
I have to say (again!) just how kind, and incredibly helpful are all the people I've dealt with at the council housing department here in Powys. I really couldn't have asked for better.
By way of a qualifying statement, I have to say also, that I would really rather not be in this position of having to claim stuff like housing benefit/council tax assistance, but I am at a loss to know how else to deal with the situation in which I find myself.