NORTH WEST
ENTGROUP.O W.ACC RG WW
Andrew Kidds Head of Customer Contact @Andkidds_Accent
Customer Portal Update We launched our online ‘Customer Portal’ in June. You should have received your username and password over the summer months.
Since its launch, around 3,000 accounts have been activated. This means that lots of you have still not yet taken advantage of this new self service via our website. If you haven’t had, or you’ve misplaced your username or password, please get in touch so we can get you set up.
Paul Spencer Housing Manager @accentbrn
Season’s Greetings! I would like to wish all our residents a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Customers accessing the online service can now report repairs directly, view their repairs history, make payments and look at their rent accounts. You can access all our news and publications too, so it is well worth visiting our website, www.accentgroup.org and selecting ‘My Account’ at the top of the page.
Those of you already using the website and self-serving will know how simple and easy it is. So, if you haven’t already, we would encourage you to set your account up as soon as you can. Please contact us to find out how.
At this time of year, probably more than any other, is the temptation to spend more than we can afford. If you are struggling to pay your rent, or you need help with managing your budget in the final run up to Christmas, or any time after, please contact us, full details on page 8, we can help...
Andrew Williams Executive Director of Customer Services @AndrewAJW
Revised reception opening times As most of you now contact us via phone, and only a small number of you (around 5%) visit our offices, we are moving towards closing our office reception areas to the public.
From Monday 1 February 2016, we are proposing to change our office visiting times to: • • • • •
Monday: 9am – 1pm Tuesday: 9am – 1pm Wednesday: 10am – 1pm Thursday: 9am – 1pm Friday: 9am – 1pm
Neil Cox Head of Contract Management @neilcox84
New repairs and maintenance contracts for 2016 The new contracts will improve service and deliver better value for money.
2
ACCENT NEWS NORTH WEST
Although you won’t be able to visit our offices outside these times without an appointment, you can still contact us and access your personal information via our customer portal. The portal is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With mobile working for staff coming soon, you’ll also be seeing
They are designed to improve service standards to: • Help us to achieve 98% customer satisfaction. • Meet 95% of all appointments. • Complete repairs in less than seven days on average. • Provide a service from 8am to 8pm on weekdays plus Saturday mornings. • Carry out ‘Home MOTs’. • Provide a handyman service.
much more of your housing officers in your neighbourhood. Our Shipley contact centre is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 8am to 12pm on Saturday. If you have any comments on the proposed new office opening hours, please contact us by Friday 8 January 2016.
You will be able to order repairs online 24 hours a day and track them. It’s a huge project for us, but we think you’ll agree it will be worth it. We believe it will provide you with a consistent and high quality service, at the same time as reducing our cost and contract administration. Contracts are due to be awarded this month. As soon as we know who the successful contractor is for your area we will let you know.
Introducing our new Customer Contact Centre Andrew Kidds, Head of Customer Contact @Andkidds_Accent
With our new customer contact centre located in Shipley, we are now in a much stronger position to improve the quality of services you can access, and develop our digital service. We have been recruiting and training new staff throughout the summer period and have a great team ready to support you. When you call us, we understand that it is often to deal with something more complex than just reporting a repair or making a payment so having trained, knowledgeable staff to support you is our priority.
“Developing the quality of service we provide directly to our customers has been the main reason for bringing our contact centres together in one building. Our digital transformation is well underway too with services easy to access online. We understand that a ‘quality’ service to most people means that their enquiry is dealt with fully at the first point of contact with little or no follow up required. We are investing in our staff training as well as technology to ensure we can deliver on this objective from our contact centre.”
We’re excited about Mobile Workin g see pag e8
The Perfect Fit: helping you to find the right home Have you thought about moving to a smaller home that better suits your needs? We can help, both practically and financially, by providing support to move, or a financial payment of up to £500. We can help with, for instance, arranging removals, disconnecting and reconnecting appliances and offering decorating vouchers. To qualify, you must leave your home in good, clean condition and be willing to move quickly – with reasonable notice. You will also receive a further £250 for each room you free up. For example, if you move from a 3-bed home to a 1-bed home, we will offer you an extra £500 for freeing up 2 bedrooms. Interested? Please contact us and when a suitable property becomes available, we will be in touch. @ CONTACT US SEE PAGE 8
Benefits could include: You may no longer be affected by bedroom tax Your bills and rent may reduce Your home may be easier to maintain You may be closer to friends and family, and amenities and services Your home might be more accessible and easily updated
We will provide support to move, or a financial payment of up to £500 3
Right to buy You may know that the Government has proposed plans to extend the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme to housing association residents. As yet, the Government has not made it clear exactly how the scheme will work, and we do not think it will come into effect before the summer of 2016. However, if you are interested in owning your own home one day, it may help to make that ambition more of a reality. The Government may limit the funding available to support the scheme, so it is really too early to provide much information. However there are things you will need to consider. Are you eligible? You will need to have been a social housing resident for a set number of years. Some homes may be exempt – but we do not know what the restrictions are yet. If your home is exempt, you may be entitled to a ‘portable discount’ which you can use to help you buy another property. Can you afford it? You will need to think about whether you can get a deposit and a mortgage and if you can keep up with the repayments, as well as whether you can afford the service charge, any ground rent and the repairs and maintenance your home will need. Other costs to consider are solicitor’s fees, stamp duty, valuation fees and surveyors’ fees. The Money Advice Service website www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk has free
information to help you understand and calculate these costs. The Government has also set up a useful advice website: https://righttobuy.communities.gov.uk Will it suit your lifestyle? Owning a home is a long term commitment which doesn’t suit everybody. Some people prefer not to have the responsibility of carrying out repairs, or they want to be flexible about where they live. Owning a home can limit some people’s opportunities to move for work or other reasons, downsizing and upsizing can be more difficult too.
TELL US YOUR VIEWS If you think you’d like to buy your home at some point now or in the future, we would like to hear from you. We are keeping a ‘register of interest’ so we can understand and plan for how we can best help our customers. We will contact you when we know how the scheme will operate. Did you know that we also build and provide shared ownership homes in some areas? This could be another way for you to get on the property ladder. See our website for details – www.accentgroup.org/find-a-home
4
ACCENT NEWS NORTH WEST
Festive Wordsearch Our wordsearch is full of the things you might expect to find at Christmas. There are no prizes for finding the words, it’s just for fun. We have listed 12 words for you – but there is a hidden 13th word. Why not post the hidden word on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/accentdbrn if you find it.
G
F
D
E
E
S
I
O
P
S
Z
X
E
D
J
A
L
K
P
S
U
R W Q
K
L
X
B
N
H
F
O
J
F
W
T
Y
U
O
L
D
V
N M D
E
C
O
R
A
T
I
O
N
S
M
I
Y
Q
E
V
M K
F
E
S
A
I
O
E
B
P
Y
U
I
K
L
C
Z
I
C
Z
R
T
Q
W U
V
L
H
U
I
O
D
C
S C
H
G
G
D
A
C
H
R
I
S
T
M
A
S
T
R
E
E
P O
D
J
H
M N
R
E
I
J
S
Z
X
R
H U
K M
S
O
I
L
H
N
T
A
R W
I
M
V
Y
U
Q R
A
O
K
H Y
T
S
O
R W C
B M
B
C
Y
D
A
E
K
P
L
A
T
F
C
X
P
V
Q K
F
R
W B
U
I
A
D
E
Y
U
T
I
A
S
C
I
F
P
E
C
S
G
K
H
O
L
L
Y
L
A
E
V H
J
S
O
P
D
R
A
G
J
E
B
O
W
L
K
V
W R
N T
L
N
J
U
X
S
E
I
Q W
F
N
X
T
V
Y
E
S
G K
O
O
H
J
C
B
J
S
D
F
U
O
E
B O
L
P
R
D S
E
W
T
Y
M
I
N
C
E
P
I
E
S
Y
H
P
A
U
I
D
V
M
U
I
A
S
T
K
L
N
S
C
R
F
Z
K
T
U
N O
I
A
W
E
V
U
N W
I
O
T
S
A
V
J
D
S
U
E
T
Y
N
L
K
Q
Z
C
A
R
O
L
S
I
N G
E
R
S
P
V
C
J
O
A
I
X
C
S
E
U
K
L
F
R
H
K
E
R
G O
P
E
R
E
I
N
D
E
E
R
A W
P
F
G
H
Y
S
B
D
K
S
V
J
Crackers
Presents
Christmas Tree
Carol singers
Turkey
Mince Pies
Reindeer
Ice skaters
Sleigh
Mistletoe
Snowman
Holly
Missing Word: @ CONTACT US SEE PAGE 8
5
Gardening Competition by Rebecca Carpenter and Uzmah Arif
Over the summer months, we received some very beautiful and creative entries for our regional gardening competition. Our judges had a very difficult job to try and decide the winners. Eventually, they did and here they are. We had four categories… Best Sheltered Scheme Garden 1st Netherton House 2nd Kirk House 3rd Blandford House
Best Container or Hanging Basket 1st Wood Top 2nd Thomas Hogg 3rd Brodie Toolin
Best Garden 1st Irene Dyer 2nd Keith Clark & Jacquelin Edmonson Mott 3rd Paul Royles & Ryszard Roskaniec
Best Disabled Residents Garden 1st George Morris
Kirk House
Well done to all our winners but also to everyone who took part. Look out for next year’s competitions and, if you didn’t win this year, get growing and we’ll see you again next year!
New Tricks – a local support service for the Barrow community by Shaun Finegan
Members of the Barrow Area Tenants Forum were recently invited to see a demonstration of this new support service which provides computer facilities for online services. Owner Doug Walters wanted to put something back into the community. He knew that more and
6
ACCENT NEWS NORTH WEST
Netherton House
Wood Top
more people have to use the internet but do not really have the knowledge or confidence to do so. New Tricks provides computer facilities and free tuition to anyone who needs it. So, if customers want to apply for benefits, or find a home, or even use the Accent Customer Portal, there is someone there to help them do it. For more information contact: Tel: 02032 394 665 Web: www.barrowlocal.com Facebook: Search ‘Barrow Local’
Cranbrook Gardens Community Centre by Wayne Brankin
Cranbrook Gardens Community Centre by Wayne Brankin
Cranbrook Gardens community centre is in the middle of one of our schemes in the Tameside area. We no longer have an office in the area and we wanted to use the centre’s facilities to provide local services, but it needed a little bit of improvement first.
So we could use one of the rooms, we renovated it. We then started to work on the rest of the community centre. With the help of the tenancy sustainability team and local residents, we held a making a difference day to decorate the centre. We also installed a computer desk and are looking into providing internet access. At the moment there are three groups that use the centre, one of which is the local residents association. We are hoping more groups will use the centre in future. If any resident in the Tameside has an idea for a group they would like to run at the community centre, please contact me.
North West Roadshow - Making a Difference by Dawn Astin
In September, staff from across our income recovery, tenancy sustainability and housing teams joined forces for a week long campaign to visit residents across Chorley and Leyland to raise awareness about Universal Credit and our fantastic partnership with the Pennine Community Credit Union. We talked to over 500 customers face to face through door knocking, and leafleted another 650. We visited each home twice at different times of the day to try and make sure we talked to every one of our residents directly. We currently have over 50 residents on Universal Credit in the region, but there will be many more. The dramatic change from weekly, fortnightly or four weekly benefits, to monthly payments with the added responsibility to your pay rent directly is a huge change to many people. The credit union
offers help through the ‘Rent Direct’ scheme with help to budget household income. Several residents signed up for the credit union and many more telephoned for information. Our Income Recovery Manager Joanne Vickers has produced a useful Universal Credit information leaflet. Please contact us if you would like a copy. Joanne said: “The roadshow gave us a chance to meet our residents and raise awareness of the welfare reforms across three areas we know will be affected. It gave us the chance to, hopefully, prevent our residents from getting into arrears should their circumstances change – and letting them know that there is help available if they need it”.
We’d like to wish all our residents a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
@ CONTACT US SEE PAGE 8
7
Using mobile technology, your local team should be out on our schemes more often in future and will be able to deal with any aspect of your tenancy whilst visiting you in your home – that’s anything from reporting a repair to helping you with your rent account.
Steve Dungworth Head of Corporate Services @accentICT
Mobile Working Our staff, with their new mobile devices, are now equipped to deliver an even better service to you.
We think this will make us more efficient by enabling our staff to see more of you by spending less time in the office. It’s all part of our personal, modern and better service.
Universal Credit is now replacing a range of in work and out of work benefits across most areas of the country.
Shaun Finegan Regional Housing Director @ShaunF_AccentNW
If you currently receive in work or out of work benefits, there is a good chance that you could move onto Universal Credit at some point in the coming months. Universal Credit brings a big change in how rent is paid. It is no longer paid directly to us by the Housing Benefit department – you will be responsible for making the payment yourself. Universal Credit is also paid monthly rather than fortnightly or every four weeks. For some people, this will mean a new way of budgeting. If you move onto Universal Credit, it is important that you tell us and let us know when your payment date is.
If you have any concerns about how the new benefit affects your rent payments please contact us. Our staff have been trained in how to deal with Universal Credit and will be able to help you set up payments to make sure your rent is paid on time. We can also help you with household budgeting.
Stay in touch! Address: 2nd Floor Stephen House Bethesda Street Burnley BB11 1PR
Telephone: 0345 678 0590 Email: burnley@accentgroup.org
Social media: @accentbrn /accentbrn www.accentgroup.org