help with moving home

Hi,

I am a single mother who was working up until recently, am now on lone parents, I am currently living in a rented flat which is fully furnished and have now been offered local authority housing. I have been told that i can get financial help with the cost of furnishing our new home and have been told I will have to get written quotes for the items, but no one seems to be able to tell me what items I am actually allowed to ask for.
Can anyone help

thanks

caron said:

Hi,

I have been told that i can get financial help with the cost of furnishing our new home and have been told I will have to get written quotes for the items, but no one seems to be able to tell me what items I am actually allowed to ask for.

Click to expand...

The Community Welfare Officer in your local health centre requires these quotes in order to asertain your requirements. The payment made to cover these items probably comes under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme (Exceptional Needs/Urgent Needs payments).

Obtain quotes for the various items/equipment you need (fridge, cooker, beds, table, chairs, etc.) and then return to the Community Welfare Officer with the quotes.

If you have any questions about the number/range of items that can be covered, contact the Community Welfare Officer directly - the number of your health centre should be in the telephone book.

Best of luck.

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to answer. I have been in contact with my local health officer and found her to be less than helpful when I asked about the range of items I would be able to get. I asked if she could give me a list but was told that they do not give out lists. all she said was that I could ask for the essentials. so I am really unsure about what all to get quotes for. do you know of any where I might be able to find this information.

Hello again,

There is no single list of items you must obtain quotations for. (I presume by the way when you refer to 'health officer' you actually mean the Community Welfare Officer?).

The Community Welfare Officer has to assess each application for Exceptional Needs Payments on their individual merit. Everyone has different needs and different circumstances and what are considered 'essential items' can vary greatly from one person to another - depending on what you need for daily living. (Also, it may transpire that you already own a number of those essential items).

In thinking about your new home - what essential items do you require for daily living? Do you own a table and chairs? Beds? Cutlery? Plates? Curtains? List out all the essential items you require to live in your new home - not the 'nice to have' items, the actual things you require in order to live there.

Then obtain quotations for those essential items. Your Community Welfare Officer is not obliged to say yes to everything - as she said, you can ask for help to buy the essentials.

As an aside, there are a number of free trade/recycling websites around that offer many houshold items for free. (Basically, just people changing their appliances or trading up/down. I thik most of these items are available free of charge - so as someone who is starting out, you might check these sites out.

You can also place an a 'Wanted' item on the site setting out what you need. Here is just an example of one -

It might also be worth getting in touch with the Saint Vincent de Paul who may also be able to offer you and your family some assistance.

I hope this has been useful. (I have no affiliation by the way with DublinWaste.ie or any other free trade website).

Best of luck and congratulations on your new home.

hi, just to add another site to get some free items, jumbletown.ie, the only problem is u have to collect these items urself which might b difficult, but its worth a try, i have recieved numerous items from here and i am very pleased with what i got.

on the supplementary welfare allowance ask people to list what they assume as essential or go to your local electrical/hardware store and ask them could they give u a list of all there essential household items including prices , they usually r very good at supplying these as they r sure of a substantial sale if u r getting supplementary allowance.

i'll start a list for u here and maybe somebody will add to it

essential things

fridge/freezer
cooker
washing machine
table and chairs
suite of furniture
beds
flooring (if the house u have has none)
bedding
curtains

hope this helps

i'll start a list for u here and maybe somebody will add to it

essential things

fridge/freezer
cooker
washing machine
table and chairs
suite of furniture
beds
flooring (if the house u have has none)
bedding
curtains

hope this helps[/quote]

hi. I got a house about 5 years ago from the Council. I was entitled / given the following :

table & Chairs
2 x beds
2 x wardrobes
£600 towards flooring.
cooker
fridge
washing machine

Baring in mind i have only 1 daughter. I was extremely grateful for these items as i didnt have a "brass farthing" to me name at the time.

I have since bought my own house and was given whats called a "Mortgage allowance grant" from the corporation of €11,000 which is paid down to me over a five year period. Everyone is entitle to this grant when giving back a corporation/council house.

***I wish you all the Best with your new home***

Star

Thanks for all the help. It has really helped, I have been really worried about it all.