Collection
When the paperwork is the problem
Around one in six adults reads below the level most official forms are written at, and that is before the letter arrives in a language they do not read, or during a month when opening post is more than they can face.
None of these require expertise. They require somebody who is not frightened of the envelope to sit down with it for an hour, which is a much smaller qualification than it sounds.
Two of them put money directly in someone's hands — support they are entitled to and nobody told them about, and tariffs that exist for low-income households where take-up is tiny. Neither one is charity, which is exactly why they are easier to accept.
9 things you can do
In roughly the order they tend to be needed.
The most common version of the problem, and almost never the one people admit to.
Read the form out loud for someone
Around one in six adults reads below the level most official forms are written at.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
An official letter in a language you do not read is frightening in a way that is hard to convey.
Translate the letter someone cannot read
An official letter in a language you do not read is frightening in a way that is hard to convey.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
There is an unopened pile in most overwhelmed households, and it gets more frightening the longer it sits.
Take the paperwork pile away for an afternoon
There is a pile of unopened post in most overwhelmed households, and it grows more frightening the longer it sits.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Long, hostile, and standing between somebody exhausted and money they are owed.
Fill in the benefits form with them
Carer's and disability forms run to dozens of pages and are refused on technicalities. Help with one is worth real money.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Enormous sums go unclaimed because nobody ever told the person they existed.
Tell someone about money they are entitled to
Billions in benefits, reliefs and refunds go unclaimed every year, mostly by people who do not know they qualify.
Half an hourFreeA friend
Discounted broadband, water and energy exist for low-income households and hardly anybody is on them.
Check whether someone is on a social tariff
Discounted broadband, water and energy tariffs exist for low-income households and take-up is tiny.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
The doctor, the council, the school — all opaque by default to anybody who did not grow up with them.
Explain how the system here actually works
Registering with a doctor, council tax, school places. Obvious to you, opaque and consequential to a newcomer.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Because the instruction you gave out loud may not have landed at all.
Offer to put it in writing
Spoken instructions vanish. For anyone with hearing loss, dyslexia or brain fog they may not have landed at all.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Renewing a visa, appealing a decision. Somebody is about to do it with no map, and you have one.
Write up the process nobody has written up
Renewing a visa, appealing a decision, navigating a diagnosis. Somebody is about to do it with no map.
An afternoonFreeA stranger