Support available to you from Thirteen

We are committed to supporting customers through difficult times. We are here to help, so please speak to us. 

Help paying your rent  

If you are struggling to pay your rent, get in touch with us. We can provide you with help and support.  

You can call us to talk about this on 0300 111 1000. 

Benefit eligibility check 

We can help you to check if you can receive certain benefits that you don’t already receive.  

We also work with Turn2us. Turn2us is a national charity that helps people who may be struggling with money. It will help with: 

  • access to hardship grants 
  • access to welfare benefits 
  • charitable grants 
  • other financial support services 

Check what benefits and support you can get here. 

Job help 

We provide a range of free job help through our employability service.  

Our service is open to Thirteen customers, as well as anyone living in the Tees Valley area. You do not have to be a Thirteen customer to get help from us. We can help if you are:  

  • unemployed and looking for work or training qualifications  
  • already working but looking for better paid work or additional work  

We can provide one on one support for up to 9 months. It does not matter how old you are, we will work with people of any age. 

The support we provide includes help with: 

  • writing a CV 
  • writing a job application 
  • preparing for an interview 
  • training and learning through our employment and skills hub 
  • getting National Open College Network (NOCN) level 1 and level 2 qualifications 
  • access to exclusive vacancies from organisations that work directly with Thirteen 
  • keeping a job once you have been successful, with support for up to 6 months afterwards  

We also provide financial support to help people with travel costs, workwear, interview clothes, work equipment and childcare.  

We can support you with ID and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks too.  

If you would like support into work, education or training, contact us on 01642 947840 or email: employability@thirteengroup.co.uk 

Using less energy at home 

The cost of energy that we use to heat and power your home has gone up a lot. 

To spend as little as possible on energy, you can do some things at home to use less energy. 

This includes: 

  • turning off electrical items and appliances at the plug 
  • turning down your thermostat (your heating control) 
  • using electrical items and appliances that have a good energy rating 
  • washing your clothes at a lower temperature 
  • turning down the temperature of radiators in rooms you're not using a lot 
  • making sure radiators are not blocked by curtains or furniture 
  • keeping doors closed to keep heat in rooms that are being heated 
  • unplugging electrical items when they are fully charged