Teacher Support Network helps teachers and their families work through difficult financial situations of all varieties.

Julia* is 39 and a secondary school teacher. Out of necessity, she took out a large mortgage in order to buy her flat - and supplemented her income by giving private tuition out of school hours.

An accident earlier this year resulted in her being off work for 10 weeks. Her additional income from private tuition ceased overnight, then her car broke down. Without her car, she couldn't get to school...so she took out a loan. Unable to keep up with the payments on this loan, she took out another and another.
When Julia called us she was over £3,000 in debt with interest being charged at rates of between 300% and 2339% for each of the loans everytime the balance wasn't being paid in full.

Julia's desperate call to our Support Line was answered by a trained coach who helped Julia to calm down. One of our specialist money advisers then worked with her to prioritise her debts and to address emergencies - like mortgage payments and council tax, both of which were in arrears.

With a £250 one-off grant, Julia was able to cover some of her immediate priority debts. Through regular contact with both her money adviser and her coach, she was given the support and information she needed to help get her debt under control, to stop the debt spiral and with careful planning, to see an end to her difficulties.

* Name has been changed.