How can we help?

The client groups we are funded to support are:

People living within the London Borough of Croydon who have a mental illness

How can the Hear Us Welfare Surgery Project help you:

1. We can address and resolve immediate financial distress.

2. We can support you by helping to improve your financial security.

3. We can help by Increasing Social Inclusion (Inc. access to preventative services).

“ We can help by providing food tickets for food banks and help you to make applications to schemes such as Croydon’s Discretionary Housing Payments. We will also help you manage your utility bills and resolve your immediate financial issues.

Examples of what  we can help you with:

Foodbanks Vouchers
Discretionary Housing Payments.
Utility Debt and Repayment Schemes

2. We can support you by helping to improve your financial security.

“If you have complex needs we can support you to have a better understanding of the Department of Welfare and Pension benefits system, and to support you to maintain the benefit claims.

“We want to continue providing a welfare benefits service if you have complex needs to ensure that you are able to obtain the essential financial support required to tackle poverty and homelessness and support you to recover from mental illness.

Examples of what  we can help you with:

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Applications
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Applications
Universal Credit (UC) Applications
DLA Applications
Housing Benefit Applications

3. We can help by Increasing Social Inclusion (Inc. access to preventative services).

“Support you to access Motability schemes and obtain a freedom pass to combat social exclusion through signposting and support; we can help ensure that your mental health enables you to engage with family and friends and to join in with activities, including volunteering in the local community.

Examples of what  we can help you with:

Applications for Freedom Passes
Mobility Schemes & Blue Badges
Referrals and Signposting for Support from Social Inclusion Services:
Referrals to Employment & Volunteering
Referrals to Groups and Activities
Referrals to Talking Therapies
Referrals to Debt Agencies
Referrals to Job Centres
Referrals to Drug and Alcohol services

If you’re seeking support or advice, please call 020 8681 6888, email surgery@hear-us.org or complete our referral form if you require assistance with a welfare benefits claim. Please leave your name, a telephone number we can call you on, and a brief detail about the issue. We will respond when we are next available.

We hold the Advice Quality Standard, which provides you with the assurance that we have met certain criteria that demonstrate a commitment to quality.

Our Welfare Surgeries Project is funded by the National Lottery and City Bridge and provides peer-run support to help people with mental illness to make claims and maintain their welfare benefits. The funding is providing additional capacity across all areas of Hear Us’s work and a proportion of core running costs and overheads. The project supports people with severe and/or enduring mental illness.

Hear Us’s Welfare Surgeries Project are members these Advice Services