Yvonne* is 63 and became ill recently with arthritis. This meant that she couldn't walk for long and so she was finding it hard to work. Yvonne has always worked and she had never claimed benefits before and felt really upset about asking for help.
Yvonne spoke to our Advice Matters team at their staff in the Arndale Centre in Morecambe and they made an appointment for Yvonne to come and talk to them about disability benefits and how to go about applying for them, and to see if she could request reasonable adjustments to help her at work.
With our help, Yvonne was also able to apply for working age benefits, a blue badge, a personal independence payment and the Warm Homes Discount to help her with energy bills.
"I was so nervous about asking for help", she said. "I've always worked and it felt shameful to be on benefits but the Citizens Advice staff were so nice and they helped me with the forms. I don't know what I would have done without them."
*not her real name
