Local welfare assistance

You may be able to get a local welfare assistance payment if you are getting one of these benefits (or are likely to get one in the next six weeks if you’re due to leave care): 

• Income support
• Employment and support allowance
• Jobseeker’s allowance
• Pension credit
• Universal credit
• You are employed or self-employed and your net earned income does not exceed £293 per week if you are a single person or £482 if you are part of a couple.

Also, one of the following must apply, you:

• need help because you or your family face exceptional pressure - for example, because of a family breakdown or illness
• do not have enough money to meet your or your family’s immediate needs after an emergency or disaster
• think there will be serious damage or risk to your or your family’s health or safety without the payment
• there is no other help available to you
• are leaving residential or institutional care, eg a care home or prison
• are being resettled into a new home by your council or a voluntary organisation following an unsettled period in your life
• are looking after someone who is ill, disabled or just out of prison
• need help to stay in your home and not go into residential care or hospital

Local welfare payments can help pay for:

• food
• essential clothing
• essential gas and electric charges
• some travel expenses
• essential household items
• some essential items destroyed as a result of disaster

This is not an exhaustive list.

Please note if you are applying for household items and you have been in receipt of the above benefits for longer than 26 weeks, you may be expected to apply to your local Jobcentre Plus for a Budgeting Loan or a Budgeting Advance (if on Universal Credit) in first instance.

Disclaimer

Local welfare assistance payment are discretionary. Each application is assessed on its individual merits and no two applications can be compared. Awards are also subject to overall funding limitations within the local welfare assistance scheme. The council reserves the right to change the level of and reasons for awards subject to budgetary pressures.