Episode 2 Sister Rita to the Rescue

Across Britain, in hundreds of towns,

cities and neighbourhoods, people are struggling with everyday

worries that have got on top of them.

But there ARE places to turn, even if

it seems that no-one else will help.

This centre is one of them,

made unique by the woman that runs it.

A nun for 50 years...

SHE TOOTS HORN

Bye-bye!

..she's made it her mission to get this community

back on its feet, and make a real difference to the lives

of as many people as she can...

in her own particular way.

They don't call me the Formidable Sister Rita for nothing.

Today, Sister Rita is summoned to Westminster after taking her

views right to the top.

There is dire, dire poverty in Collyhurst.

Our task today is to try and get this across to the minister.

But when she gets an unexpectedly positive result, the nun

finds herself at the centre of a media storm.

I have said nothing

as a statement to anybody,

I repeat that,

I have said NOTHING

to the press

or anybody else.

Collyhurst, Manchester - and the Lalley drop-in centre

and food bank are once again open for business.

Right, I need to tell you something.

New visitors are not allowed to take food

until we see their documents.

Calling the shots, in her inimitable style, is team leader Sister Rita.

Can you shut up, please. If you're all nattering like the kids

in the nursery, we're not going to get anywhere, are we?

If I find chewing gum on the carpet,

I'll be sorry for the one who put it there.

He's naughty, him.

This is very serious, stop laughing.

A nun for 50 years,

for the last seven years, she's been overseeing an invaluable

neighbourhood resource where people can come for advice and support.

If you're having problems with the Job Centre - and believe me,

I have a lot - you come in to us and we'll do the best we can.

But there's a reason she's known to all as the Formidable Sister Rita.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Do you want to be thrown out on your ear?

If you smoke out there,

well, you'll be dead if I catch you.

You don't want to be dead, do you?

Sister Rita's determined to make practical information

and help accessible to those who most need it.

But the problems she hears at the Lalley aren't unique to Collyhurst.

They're echoed in countless communities across the country.

And Sister Rita has strong views about what

she thinks needs to be done.

Are you listening?

Rather than keep her opinions to herself, she's taking them straight

to the top, and has written a letter

to Prime Minister David Cameron.

When I decided to write, I'd had a week of people

coming in desperation.

And I remember thinking, "Is there anything

"I could do just to make it a tiny bit better?"

So I wrote to the Prime Minister

to say, "This is how it is for people who are desperate".

While she waits to see if she'll get a reply, Sister Rita

and her team are doing what they do best - making things happen.

Don't hit any car, please.

Don't even joke about it!

Today, along with two of her volunteers, she's off to pick up

furniture chosen from her own convent to be delivered to

a 12-year-old boy who's moved to the area to be with his dad.

Well, the family who are waiting had trauma, actually,

and they came into the Lalley about maybe two or three months ago.

They moved into a house and the child wants to

hang his clothes up, you know.

I mean, it's a basic need, isn't it?

A few days ago, Lalley Centre volunteers dropped the two

items off for storage at a national charity -

which distributes furniture to people who most need it.

-It was here, innit?

-What's that there, behind it?

But now they're struggling to find what they left.

And one of the staff has some bad news...

He thinks they no longer have it.

Well, it might have gone out if you dropped it off on Friday.

I think what we brought on Friday has been given out to somebody else.

The charity gives out furniture daily to those in need.

And it looks like the two items from the convent have already been

given to someone else. All this way for what?

Tell me, for what?

Sister Rita is pleased the furniture has gone to a good home,

but she is left with a problem, because she promised the boy

and his father they'd have a wardrobe

and chest of drawers later today.

I get worked up when families are waiting for something,

they've been waiting for ages and suddenly they can't have it,

you know, because it's gone.

I'm not going to keep this family waiting.

I happily got a donation today

that I think would be best spent on getting that.

That's what I'm going to do.

Back at the Lalley Centre,

Sister Rita hatches a plan with team member Kath - who's

seen for herself how much the family is depending on their help.

-I'm far more upset than I look.

-I know.

I'm just aware of this 12-year-old with his bin liner of clothes.

-This is what I'm going to do right now.

-Mm.

I will ring two charities, or three...

..tell them we will buy the wardrobe

and we will buy the chest of drawers.

Have you, by any possibility, got a wardrobe?

Could you give us a price, please?

Right. So, for £50, we'd get both.

With a deal done, Sister Rita despatches her volunteers to

pick up the vital wardrobe and drawers.

Thanks a lot, mate.

Thank you. See you again.

And as if that hiccup along the way had never happened,

the Sister is able to deliver the boy's wardrobe

straight to his door - just as she'd promised.

Yes!

Not every problem Sister Rita

and her team encounters can be resolved so quickly.

Many of the people they strive to help have mental health issues,

and Sister Rita worries that these people are particularly

vulnerable when it comes to making the right choices

or dealing effectively with their finances.

A lot of people come into the Lalley Centre and they're depressed.

And then they tell me that they were told that they're not depressed

and they can get a job - I am furious.

We have expressed all those concerns

that we have about people who clearly cannot work.

So, what do we do about that?

We help them to get their lives back on track.

Someone with depression finding things especially difficult

is Louise.

Her illness has exacerbated her money troubles -

and as they've spiralled out of control,

she's ended up in debt to payday loan companies.

Hiya, Louise. I'm Lorraine, I'm a social worker.

After missing the medical assessments needed for her

benefits to continue,

Louise's payments were cut by the Department of Work and Pensions.

Such benefit reductions - known as sanctions - are increasingly common.

It's been claimed that as many as one in five welfare claimants

may have had one, after falling foul of the toughened-up rules.

But for Louise, the pressure of having less money

is beginning to tell.

I've been sanctioned since January of this year

and I've not had a penny since.

My benefit was sanctioned until

I attended a medical assessment.

When I went for the medical assessment,

the report went back to the DWP

saying that I...could go to work,

but I suffer with mental health issues.

When I went for the medical assessment, I clearly explained

how a general day is for me...

-OK.

-..and all the stress that I... I'm sorry.

It's OK. Don't worry. Here you go.

What they're saying is she should be claiming Job Seekers Allowance,

but she doesn't strike me as a person who's ready to go

out into the workplace, so she needs help.

The Government says sanctions are an important part of the benefits

system, tackling those who don't follow the rules,

and reducing the tens of billions spent on benefits every year.

But charities have expressed concern that for those with mental

health issues, they may just create more stress.

I'm just... I'm just not coping...

very well, do you know what I mean?

I'm not sleeping, I'm hardly eating cos of everything.

Even though I'm taking my tablets every day,

erm,

it's just getting to the point

where I feel like I'm going to have a massive breakdown.

How would you feel about if I contacted the doctor

and got you an appointment?

-Yeah, well, I should have gone yesterday to the doctors...

-Right.

..but I just couldn't get out.

Lorraine calls Louise's GP

and makes an appointment for later in the week.

Do you want me to come with you?

-Yeah, you could do, yeah.

-Yeah?

When I go for my review, I just, like, I say I'm doing fine.

-Everything's OK.

-When they're not...

And you're not fine, are you?

No, I'm far from it.

Based on what she's told me today, I couldn't imagine her

in a workplace tomorrow,

because she's got a lot of issues going on.

How many children have you got?

I've just got one currently living with me. It's my youngest.

She's the reason I get up in the morning.

She was, you know, clearly distressed.

She should have come here in January when she got sanctioned,

so she's managed all this time

with nothing, you know,

struggling to survive and to feed her child.

People don't understand when you live with depression, it gets hard.

If you don't want to get up on that day and go out,

-you won't.

-I know.

Mental health is such a difficult area, you can't see it

and people may appear to look OK, but they're not OK.

Sister Rita's aim for the Lalley is for it to be a total one-stop shop,

where locals can get help with all the problems they might be facing.

And Louise is exactly the sort of case that prompted her letter

to the Prime Minister, as hers

is a classic example of the type of situation

the nun wants David Cameron to be thinking about

when making big decisions on benefits.

When I see and hear what they're struggling with with benefits

and unemployment, that really makes me fume.

And you can see it in their eyes, you know.

The hope is beginning to fade.

They're very embarrassed and they frequently cry

and break down when they're telling you the story.

And you know the genuineness of what they're saying shines through them.

Sister Rita's both surprised and delighted that her letter to

Downing Street has prompted a swift response.

The Prime Minister has passed on her concerns to Iain Duncan Smith,

the government minister

tasked with making the benefits system a success.

And he's invited the nun to London to hear her concerns face-to-face.

I was very, very, very, very surprised

when I got the e-mail to say he'd see us.

My main job in meeting the minister

is to inform him of the effects

his benefits are having

on people who are struggling.

Astonished she's had such a positive response, Sister Rita can't

wait to tell the Lalley Centre regulars what's in store.

You have to hear about the minister, Iain Duncan Smith.

Kath McCarron and I, we're going to London tomorrow to see

the minister and you'd better be thinking of us - all of you, OK?

And we will do our best to fight the fight for Collyhurst.

Though unexpected, the summons to Westminster is a unique chance to

bring the problems she sees every day to the attention of the Government.

And, perhaps, for Sister Rita to make more of a difference

than she'd ever dared hope.

We are going to try and give

Mr Duncan Smith a picture

really of the misery that is being caused in areas like this.

I don't know anybody actually here

who's delighted to be on benefits.

The government must and SHOULD be doing more.

It's the people that are falling through the gap,

people who are sick and disabled,

the elderly.

That's why we're doing what we're doing now.

To try and raise some awareness

of what people have to put up with

in this day and age in this affluent society.

There is no affluence in Collyhurst.

News of the meeting with Iain Duncan Smith spreads

quickly around the Lalley.

As the man with the ultimate responsibility for the benefits

system that affects so many of the people who call in, there's

real excitement that Sister Rita

will be able to voice their concerns.

I am hoping that she will get Iain Duncan Smith to realise

that we ARE struggling - the real people out there are struggling.

What I would love out of the meeting

is the awareness, that extra help

and that support.

All those things are necessary

if we're looking forward to a greater Britain, we have to

deal with these issues and that's what the Lalley Centre does.

We haven't got a voice any more...

..so for Sister Rita to be able to do that is good.

She'll tell him straight!

And the opportunity to tell it straight to Iain Duncan Smith

is one that Sister Rita appears to be relishing.

I don't know what he knows about religious Sisters, but people

have an idea that religious Sisters are very quiet and docile...

He's going to be in for a shock, then!

It's not like that at all.

One thing Sister Rita will be certain to mention at the meeting is

the food bank that's become one of the cornerstones of the Lalley.

Collyhurst is an area with high unemployment -

and many residents have come to rely on it to get by.

Don't push!

But for the food bank to keep running, Sister Rita has had to

develop a network of suppliers who are willing to

give their surplus stock for free.

Are they all right here? Yeah?

Big names in the food world she's persuaded to donate include

Tesco, Greggs and Costco.

You can take two. Take two.

Yeah, that's great. Thanks a lot.

But keeping those suppliers on side is crucial.

So today, Sister Rita's on charm offensive - visiting two of her

most valuable suppliers to let them know how vital their donations are -

and to encourage them to keep giving as much as they can.

You're for ever looking and ringing and asking

and searching to get food that people need.

If people didn't give, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing.

We are going to...

Riley's Sausages.

Riley's is a local meat wholesaler that specialises in making sausages.

-That all right?

-Perfect.

Owner Carol is a contact the Sister has developed a relationship with

in her own distinctive way.

I knew she was doing some work in Manchester with very poor people.

I just asked her if she wanted anything

and she's never been off my back ever since!

We have a little bit of, um...

a creative arrangement between us,

where sometimes, I do the shouting,

you know, and she does the listening.

-The burgers...

-Yes!

-I'm going to keep it quiet from you!

Wait till we do kebabs, I'm not telling you!

Oh, well - I'll know, won't I? Cos you've just told me.

She's a character, but she can get things out of people more than,

I should think, anybody else.

You don't say "no" to Sister Rita.

And while she knows resistance is futile where Sister Rita's

concerned, Carol's more than happy to help.

She's even been known to cook up extra supplies

just to keep the nun happy.

If we really didn't have anything left, we would make it for her.

In fact, I have made it for them before.

She's been screaming at me, "Have we got any more left?"

and I said, "Go and make her some, to keep her quiet!"

I think that if you've got a business,

especially a food business, you should help the less fortunate.

There are many, many people

all over England that need people like the Lalley Centre.

But she does a lot of good work and I dare say at her age,

she shouldn't be running around so much.

Next stop, another vital supplier down the road - a growing

regional bakery that now has over 60 stores.

We're going to Greenhalgh's bakery.

The Sister is here to break bread with the company's top brass,

to make sure that main man David Smart

keeps those food bank donations coming.

First of all, I want to say thank you

so much for the bumper wagon you sent to us.

It's a pleasure.

I'm always saying this to you, you know, but the quality is very good.

You must know that, do you eat your products?

Look at the size of me!

David vividly remembers the day four years ago

when he and Sister Rita first met.

Oh, my lord.

She came in just bursting through the door

and I thought, "She's a nutter"!

An Irish catholic nun on a mission!

-This is Italian bread, it's called ciabatta.

-Oh, yeah - I know that.

She's quite forthright, but then, you cut away at all that

and you actually see the heart of gold that she's got and then,

once you see that heart of gold, you'll do anything for her.

Good for you!

I know that you've always continued to help us in the past

and I'm hoping you're going to do it in the future.

We make our money within the community,

so it's only right we give back to the community.

Yeah, OK.

As long as they need it, we'll always help.

I mean, at the end of the day, why throw it in a big hole

when somebody else can benefit?

I really do trust the Irish nun.

I mean, she will make sure THAT gets to where it's needed.

Doing the rounds of the food bank suppliers is an essential

part of keeping the service going.

But things might be easier for Sister Rita

if she could hand over some of that to her right hand man, Max.

You can choose one piece of meat.

-One piece?

-One. One.

Max.

Well, I don't think you'd ever get another Max.

Sister Rita's trusted deputy is originally from Peru, but he

came here to the UK to be with his British wife Maria five years ago.

And he now has responsibility for the day-to-day

running of the food bank.

What's your name?

-Etta.

-Etta?

-Etta.

As he began to volunteer,

it wasn't very long before both of us

realised we were singing from the same hymn sheet.

Sister Rita relies on Max for everything,

except for one key thing that could really help.

Max doesn't yet have a UK driving licence

and that means the Sister is stretched doing work that her

assistant could be doing.

Sometimes we get phone calls from some donors.

With my driving licence, I could take the van and collect it

but right now I cannot do it, so that's a problem.

But, determined to get behind the wheel

and help Sister Rita out, Max has been taking driving lessons.

Max has great empathy with people. He will go the extra ten miles.

So far, though, those extra ten miles have had to be on foot.

Because, while the lessons have gone well,

Max has had no luck passing his test.

I've failed five times. Five times, yes.

Max's problems in joining the fast lane are a far cry from life

back in Peru where he was a regular on the roads.

The driving licence from my country's not valid here in UK.

In my brain, seeing coming cars from the wrong side was a little

difficult in the beginning for me, so it was very confuse for me.

Max has now been booked for his latest test

and thinks it might be sixth time lucky.

-We will celebrate when? Next week!

-THEY LAUGH

I think I'm 100% ready for my test on Wednesday.

If Max gets it right and at last gets his driving licence,

Sister Rita's task of running the food bank might just become

that little bit more simple.

I wish and pray every single hour of the day that he can drive.

If he wants something from B&Q, I have to drive him to B&Q.

So of course I want Max to drive!

But before Max retakes his test,

another day of reckoning has arrived.

You have to show him your ticket.

Along with team member Kath, Sister Rita is on her way to London

to meet Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith.

As the minister responsible for the benefits system in the UK,

the Sister can't wait to let him

know what life in Collyhurst is really like.

It's a great opportunity.

I still can't believe he's allowing us to come

and see him, actually.

But we're on the front line

and they have a right to hear what's going on at the front.

They're not going to know about it.

No, except from what they see in the papers and what's perpetuated

but it's, you know, life of Riley on benefits, you know, you can

have Sky, holidays abroad and a fancy car.

That is not our experience at all.

No, and I think one of our tasks today is to try

and get this across to the minister. There is dire,

dire poverty in Collyhurst and it should not be in this land.

But, for Sister Rita, this is about much more than simply

getting on her soapbox to give the minister a talking-to.

She wants to return from London with something specific to improve

the lives of those who come to the Lalley Centre for help.

I'm hoping that by the time we've said our bit, he will be

initiated into making some kind of response like, "What could you

"give to us in Collyhurst that could help us to do this better?"

Now, my feeling is that the minister will be slow to make any

promises today or to give away anything.

But they don't call me the Formidable Sister Rita for nothing.

Neither do they call me Atilla the Nun for nothing.

Sister Rita's bagged a meeting with a man who could make a real

difference to the people of Collyhurst.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

But she knows the challenge now is to come away with the right result.

Back at the Lalley, Lorraine has another meeting with Louise,

who's had just the sort of experience with the benefits system

that Sister Rita wants others to avoid.

You've had all the papers back now, haven't you?

-And you've got a date for next week?

-Yeah. 19th, yeah.

For almost nine months, Louise has been living

on severely reduced benefits.

They were cut after she missed key medical assessments

and officials concluded she was fit to work.

But she suffers with depression and both she and Lorraine

think the decision to part suspend her payments was wrong.

Now, with Lorraine's help,

she's set to appeal the ruling at an upcoming tribunal.

If it goes in her favour, she may have her benefits reinstated

and also backdated to the time they were originally suspended.

So they've sent you copies of all the paperwork that they're

-going to be reading at the tribunal.

-Yeah, yeah.

Louise is currently trying to run her home without more than

£100 a week in employment-support allowance.

To make up for that,

she's resorted to using money offered to her by loan companies.

I'm thousands of pounds in debt for borrowing 150 quid.

I thought I'll be able to pay it back.

But, as you know, when you don't pay anything back,

the interest just goes up and up and up and up.

Yeah. And how much do you owe now?

1,400 quid.

If the appeal goes in my favour, I'll get the loan shark off my back

and then I'll be all right, then.

Before the tribunal takes place, though,

Louise has the doctor's appointment

that Lorraine arranged to talk about her illness.

All this is getting on top of me. It's doing my head in.

Yeah, you need to get it sorted out.

Lorraine is hopeful that a GP might review Louise's medication.

And, if she can get a sick note from the surgery,

it could help at the tribunal.

It went quite well, the appointment. They have changed her medication,

they've referred her for some counselling as well

but then she's come to pick up a sick note from reception and

the Job Centre told the doctor not to issue

any more sick notes for her, saying she's fit for work.

The news that the Job Centre has apparently advised

the surgery not to issue a sick note hasn't gone down well with Louise,

who admits she does have a temper.

I think that's stupid, that, me.

It's the doctor that tells them that I'm not capable of work,

not the other way round.

Lorraine calls the Job Centre to find out exactly what was

sent to Louise's GP.

She's told it was a standard letter regarding sick notes used to

support benefits, explaining what happens

if those benefits have been suspended.

But it's not supposed to stop a GP issuing a sick note where

one's appropriate.

Armed with the knowledge that a sick note can still be issued,

they head back into the doctor's, where it's clear

the letter has caused confusion for everyone.

The benefits system can often be a challenge,

even to someone as well versed in it as Lorraine.

The benefits system is really difficult to navigate

cos it changes all the time.

I have to phone up and get the information

cos I don't have all the answers.

When we phone up, some of the benefits advisers give us

conflicting information

and it's quite hard to understand who's right or wrong.

When Lorraine passes on the new information from the Job Centre,

it results in the surgery issuing the all-important sick note

and Louise has found her support invaluable.

I wouldn't have got anything done without you.

-Yeah, it's never easy to navigate around the benefits system.

-Yeah.

But Louise's biggest challenge is still to come.

Will the tribunal agree that her

benefit sanction should be overturned?

In London, Sister Rita's meeting with Work and Pensions minister,

Iain Duncan Smith, is finally over.

I think he was tense at the beginning

and I think he was waiting for us to take out the shotgun,

to be honest with you.

-You know, because everybody else is doing it.

-Yeah.

It was better than I ever imagined it could be.

I didn't imagine that he would be

so receptive to what we were telling him.

I am very, very optimistic about this

and very happy that somebody who's the lawmaker has listened to

what we're trying to tell them and I think it'll pay dividends.

What's more, during the meeting, Iain Duncan Smith pledged to

trial a new scheme,

which would see Job Centre staff drop into the Lalley each week to

give visitors face-to-face advice on claiming benefits and finding work.

If successful, it could even be rolled out across the whole country.

We won't let it go.

The new plan is a bolt from the blue for Sister Rita.

But mixed with her excitement is the fear that, once she's

back in Collyhurst, this won't stay top of the minister's agenda.

I said to him, "If I go out of this room, I hope we're going to

"hear from you again and that this won't be the end of it."

And he said,

"No, we are very interested and we want to do as much as we can."

Politicians make a lot of promises

but politicians haven't before met Sister Rita Lee, have they?

But it seems her worries are ill-founded.

Over the next few days, plans for testing out

the Department of Work and Pensions' new initiative are quickly firmed up.

The Lalley Centre will have some manager from

DWP who will come in here

and they will be available for anyone who's been sanctioned.

They will have a direct access to people who make decisions.

It sounds to me like a better plan than us

plodding away trying to find somebody who not only knows

what we're talking about but can make some kind of a decision.

The plan is that, for a trial period, Job Centre Plus staff

will be on hand at the Lalley Centre to discuss work or benefit issues,

with the authority to review benefit sanctions on the spot.

It could save visitors time and money on telephone calls

and, it's hoped, streamline the whole process.

Good morning, everybody. Can I just have your attention, please?

It's a real coup for the Sister

and she wastes no time in sharing the good news with her regulars.

-Last week, we told you we were going to London, did we?

-Yeah.

Well, here's the proof.

APPLAUSE

Us standing with the Secretary of State in his office.

Kath McCarron and myself told him about the poverty,

about the despair of some of the people coming in here.

He listened very carefully about how he can make it

better for people on benefits.

Job Centre Plus, they're coming in here.

I've got faith enough to believe that they're trying to make

a difference.

They could fix it right there.

If somebody asked me, "How successful was the trip to London?"

I would say 100% successful.

Thank you.

Someone else looking for 100% success is Sister Rita's deputy,

Max, as the day of his latest driving test has arrived.

If he can pass, he should be able to lighten

the load on Sister Rita by taking on even more food bank responsibilities.

I feel very confident. I practise a lot, so I'm ready.

This will be my sixth time, so

I have plenty experience in driving tests here in the UK.

Max is relaxed, with no last-minute nerves.

But will all that practice be enough to get him

the result he needs this time around?

Unfortunately, no. Max has failed his driving test yet again.

Definitely not the result he was looking for.

Well, this is the driving test report. I made 11 faults.

I feel very disappointed with myself because I need my driving licence.

Makes me feel not very happy!

Now Max has the extra ordeal of having to tell Sister Rita

that he's still stuck in neutral when it comes to driving.

And he's hoping he's caught her on a good day to deliver bad news.

We have bits of shouting times, you know.

You see, I want everything yesterday...

Good morning, everybody.

..and Max is more measured.

And, of course, sometimes he's right and sometimes I'm right.

Hello, Sister. Good morning. How are you?

-How did you go on?

-I failed, again.

It's all right because you'll pass the next time, OK?

Hard going for you, love, isn't it? Eh?

Max is relieved Sister Rita has taken the news in her stride.

But then, he is a particularly valued member of the team.

We do work very, very well together

and I'm not quite sure how the Lalley would function without him.

For now, Max will have to hope that it's lucky number seven

in his bid to pass his driving test.

But, until then, Sister Rita will still be the one on the road

when it comes to the Lalley's official food bank business.

I'm thinking, "Oh, God, will you hurry up?"

You're not going to say that to somebody who's just

failed their test but you can say it to yourself, that's allowed.

As the Government's pilot scheme gets underway,

with Job Centre advisers tackling work and benefit queries right away,

Sister Rita's thrilled at how it

builds on the centre's regular business

This is in your interest, you know. It isn't in mine.

Until an unexpected announcement in London sees her

thrust into the limelight in a way she hadn't been prepared for.

Something that I'm also just trialling at the moment,

which the committee will not be aware of, I haven't said anything about it before,

I was visited by a particular food bank

before the summer break to talk about some of the issues

about delivering food and some of the problems with individuals

that turn up and say they have a problem with their payments.

Only a few weeks into the ongoing trial,

Iain Duncan Smith had, without warning,

told the Work and Pensions Select Committee, and the world,

that it was happening.

If this works and if the other foodbanks are willing to

encompass this and we think it works, we think we'd like

to roll this out across the whole of the UK.

Sister Rita, who understood it was all meant to be kept under wraps,

suddenly found herself bombarded with calls

as the story and the Lalley became headline news.

And when the minister's office does finally call...

-PHONE RINGS

-Hello.

..she's less than impressed.

Well, first of all,

we've kept our side of the bargain here,

we didn't put this out to anybody.

My charity Caritas is bombarded from everybody and anybody about this.

Though rattled at suddenly being the centre of attention,

it's not long before Sister Rita is back in control.

But why did you put it out, then?

I mean, all right, you can say to me

it's up to the minister what he does,

but because we were acting the way we were, it would have been just

courtesy to let me know.

And, the thing is, I think that it needs time and it needs us

to work on it.

It's a very new approach, people are mistrustful.

We have to work through that. Bye-bye, bye-bye. Yup.

Well, that's him told.

Sister Rita is also upset at how some

reports are referring to the people who use the food bank

and she wants to put that right.

I need to speak to you very urgently about this and you need to listen.

The media are flocking around right now looking for information

about the DWP coming here on a Thursday afternoon.

I have said nothing as a statement to anybody.

I'll repeat that, I have said nothing.

What they've put in here is...beyond belief.

"The Department of Work and Pensions staff are basing

"themselves at the Lalley Community Centre food bank in Collyhurst,

"which has been overwhelmed with demand from penniless families."

Do you think I'd say that about you? I would not.

Sister Rita, I've got absolute faith in you, honestly.

Sister Rita's been taken aback at how her desire to

help on a bigger scale has suddenly become altogether more political.

And while she's still behind the pilot scheme,

she's surprised at how quickly it's being labelled a success.

Right now, I don't think I'm in any position to say

that it's either a success or a failure.

There's some correctness, I think, in what they're saying

but then there's always a slant that comes into it that makes it

either antithe-government, and I'm not saying I'm pro-the-government.

I'm pro those people out there and I'm pro-the-government

if they're going to do anything at all to help them.

Those of us that are in the business of helping people who are struggling

for whatever reason, then we fight for them, we're on their side,

we want them to have a better life.

And whatever makes it that tiny bit better, we're happy about.

Away from the national stage,

a story closer to home is reaching its conclusion.

It's the day of Louise's tribunal, to rule

whether she's entitled to benefits that are paid to those who have

difficulty working because of long-term illness.

If I don't win today, I dread to think where I'll be next week.

I'm very nervous. Very nervous, yeah.

Louise struggles with depression

and, in the past, was paid benefits supporting her illness.

But after she missed medical assessments earlier in the year,

her Job Centre decided she was fit for work

and suspended her main weekly benefit.

I don't know what the outcome of today is going to be.

This is my life, do you know what I mean?

Sister Rita has sent Lalley Centre social worker Lorraine

to support Louise through the hearing.

Just be really clear about what you're saying.

But I'll be there by your side. Are you good to go?

-Right, yeah. I'm good to go.

-Are we going to do this?

-Yeah, let's do this.

-Let's do it.

If the appeal finds in her favour, Louise may have her benefits

reinstated and also backdated to the time they were originally suspended.

-You were amazing.

-Thank you. You were too.

They're going to send the result of the tribunal

out in the post tonight.

Louise was amazing.

I know you got upset a few times, which is fine. It's stressful.

I was able to get my answers across and my opinion

and that's what I wanted, really.

I wouldn't have got through that without you and your support.

Fingers crossed, I'm hoping that it's going to go in my favour.

Two days later, Louise learned her appeal against her benefits

sanction had been successful.

After the support she's received from the Lalley Centre,

she's now once again receiving payments.

And the tribunal's ruling is good for the next two years.

Cases like Louise's have become familiar to the team at the Lalley.

And that's one reason why Sister Rita is so pleased with

the new pilot scheme that came out of her meeting with Iain Duncan Smith.

If it works, it will mean, across the country,

decisions on contested benefits sanctions can be made much faster.

Which, for people like Louise, will make a big difference.

And now the dust has settled, the nun is starting to share

the minister's optimism on how the trial will turn out.

I think the fact that the Government is trialling

a project at the Lalley right now, we're very happy with that.

We're seeing, now, things happening

and I think the word is getting around.

And I think it's wonderful

if the Lalley Centre has influenced any policies that come out

that will be more beneficial to the people who are struggling.

Whilst making a difference on a national scale is important,

Sister Rita doesn't want anybody on her own doorstep

to slip through the net.

So her focus now is to find a way to bring together every

member of the local community who may need her help.

Next time...

This is Collyhurst.

..Sister Rita's attempts to tackle loneliness in the area

receive a blow when her new friendship club falls flat.

They don't think they need to come out of their homes to meet

with other people and that's it, we have to break that down.

And the Sister heads back to where her own journey began,

as the city of Cork comes together to celebrate her 50 years as a nun.

Women are extraordinary beings, truly they are.

I'm not saying I don't love men.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE