Because of her reduced income, she had fallen behind in her payments. The budget advisor went to work, calling creditors and negotiating reduced payments and more time to pay. The arrears for tax and student loan were of most concern to Veronica. But after discussions with IRD a credit was transferred from a previous year and the rest of the debt was written off because of her financial hardship. She couldn’t believe that all her sleepless nights were sorted out so easily. If that wasn’t enough, when the advisor was checking her payments on her bank statement she discovered she was paying $20 for water which seemed strange because she knew Veronica lived in a Housing NZ house (where you don’t pay separately for water). After making enquiries, it appeared that she had been paying for water that she wasn’t using and was owed a reimbursement of over $2000. When the advisor called to tell her the good news Veronica was overwhelmed with emotion, saying there was no way she could have done this alone without the help and support of an advisor. The extra money was used to pay some of her debt and Veronica had much more energy to keep looking for work.