Tomris's story

Tomris is a nurse and single mother of three children. During her most recent maternity leave, she split up with her partner and couldn’t afford the upfront cost of childcare to allow her to return to work. She said:

 

“My relationship broke down and I have got three children, and I was on maternity leave wanting to go back to work but my first month's child care was £1,500, so you have to find that first before you get any support. So, it got me back to work, and I’m going back next week.”

 

​While the grant itself allowed Tomris to go back to work and have a bit of financial breathing space. 

“I tried to go through the job centre to get help first...all sorts of red tape stops you from getting back to work. But this grant has helped me get back to work, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to go back."

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Tomris said it would be inconvenient to have to find, print, scan and send in statements manually and that it might “put people off applying for the help, because some people find it hard to fill in forms and things without support and so it’s good because you can just do it really quickly, and then it is done.”

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She would recommend the process to everybody. Tomris said:

 

“It should always be like that. I think everyone should use it now actually.”