Surprise windfall for Trust tenants
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A Telford couple received an unexpected windfall thanks to The Wrekin Housing Trust, after winning a prize draw for completing a tenant survey.
The £250 prize was delivered to the delighted pair, Graham and Tina Ashley of Shawbirch, who said they couldn’t believe their luck as they had never won anything before.
The Trust offered the prize as an incentive to tenants to complete a short survey as part of a research campaign about Universal Credit, a new benefit being rolled out across the country to replace current income support, job seekers allowance, housing benefit and child and working tax credits awards. The purpose of the survey is to raise awareness and understanding of the introduction of the new benefit.
Tenant Services Manager at The Wrekin Housing Trust, Colette Simonczyk, said: “We’re thrilled to hand over the first £250 prize to our tenants Mr and Mrs Ashley.
“We’re extremely grateful to all the tenants who have completed the survey for us. It’s really important for us to find out how much our tenants know about the changes in benefits awards being rolled out across the UK, with Universal Credit due to go live in the Telford region in November this year.
“Many are unaware of the effect this might have on their finances, short and long term, and we want to make sure we’re offering support to our tenants where needed. The survey will help us discover who might need guidance on the change-over, or budgeting advice to help maintain their tenancy if they find their allowance reduced under the new system.”
Mrs. Ashley said of their win: “It was such a surprise to hear we’d won, I couldn’t believe it when Graham told me.
“We are really over the moon and the money has come in very handy. We are very thankful.”
More than 600 tenants have completed the Trust’s Universal Credit survey to date, but their target is to gather information from around 1,600 individuals who might be impacted.
Another £250 prize winner will be drawn in March once the target number of completed surveys has been reached.
13th March 2018