Support network
Debra Peter
CHWW – Lead Navigator
CHWW Team
Holistic health oversight
A trusted friend
Interpreter & reassurance
Key facts
Language
Farsi
Deadline
3 months (UC Managed Migration)
Barriers
Digital exclusion, mobility
The situation
Farsi is this resident’s first language, and she has no digital access or digital literacy of her own. A government Managed Migration notice meant she had to move from Legacy Benefits to Universal Credit within a strict three-month window. At the same time, her Personal Independence Payment needed an urgent update to reflect a change in her circumstances. Language, digital exclusion, and mobility issues intersected to put her at real risk of her benefits stopping altogether.
The response
Debra, her CHWW, became the constant thread running through it all: working directly alongside her on the computer to process the Universal Credit application before the deadline, and arranging by phone for her son to bring her ID to the Benefits office when her own mobility made that impossible. Around that core relationship, the wider CHWW team kept a watchful eye on her health and wellbeing through a stressful few months; a trusted friend stepped in as an interpreter and source of reassurance whenever official Farsi support wasn’t immediately available; and Age UK took on the specialist, time-consuming work of getting her PIP update right.
I directly assisted her on the computer to initiate the transition, ensuring she did not miss her strict three-month deadline — and arranged by phone for her ID to be taken to Victoria by her son, as she was unable to do this herself.
— Debra Peter, CHWW
The outcome
She still doesn’t have independent digital access — that hasn’t changed. What has changed is that she is no longer facing that gap on her own. She knows she can call on Debra, on the wider CHWW team if Debra isn’t available, and on partners like Age UK for specialist help — any time, for anything.
Why it matters
No single agency held the whole picture here — the CHWW did. That’s the model working exactly as intended: a trusted, hyperlocal presence who finds people before crisis point and builds the right support around them.
Details in this case study have been anonymised to protect the resident’s privacy. Shared with permission by Debra Peter, CHWW, as part of the CHWW National Programme’s Community of Practice.
