Paul is 17 and lives in Llanelli. He had been having problems with his father and about 6 months earlier was thrown out of the house. He had nowhere to go and ended up sleeping on his friend’s sofa for a while. Eventually he applied to a housing association and got a flat. He was worried about how to pay the rent but took the flat because he was desperate and didn’t know what else to do.

Paul had a part time job in a bar but his wages were very low and soon he found it almost impossible to pay the rent. Very quickly it got to the stage that he owed around £1,000 in rent. The housing association was threatening to take him to court to evict him.

He went to a local advice agency who found out that his wages were so low he should have been claiming housing benefit to help towards his rent. He said he had gone to the Council about this and they had given him an application form. Paul didn’t fill it in as he couldn’t read and they had also asked him for wage slips which he had lost. He didn’t know what to do. He had no support from his family and felt that no one cared.

The adviser at the advice agency helped him complete a new form and got copies of his wages slips from his employer. She contacted the housing association and informed them that we were going to claim back benefit to help pay off the rent he owed because he had a good reason because of his particular difficulties for not applying straight away. They agreed not to go ahead with the eviction. The housing benefit was then backdated and Paul agreed to pay off the rest of what he owed in small weekly payments.