FINANCIALLY challenged families who lose out as a result of changes to welfare benefits will have access to a one-stop-shop for hardship advice and assistance from April.
Harrow Council’s Labour administration approved on Thursday last week a year-long trial of its Harrow Help scheme that aims to assist people on low incomes or who are vulnerable on a first come, first served basis.
The idea is to provide a central point of contact through which needy households will either be referred to support agencies, such as Citizens Advice Bureau, schools or the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), or to the Emergency Relief Scheme.
The emergency scheme provides things like food vouchers, white goods, furnishings such a mattress or bed, travel cards, and clothing and repays emergency credit on a pre-payment utility meter, while cash will only be handed over in exceptional circumstances.
Harrow Council’s portfolio holder for finance, councillor Sachin Shah, said: “The Harrow Help scheme will provide vital help for people most in need across the borough.
“These are difficult financial times and it is hugely important that as a council we do all we can to protect our most vulnerable from the effects of hardship. We take this responsibility extremely seriously and will be monitoring this scheme to ensure it is delivering the right help where it is needed.”
The DWP is scrapping the discretionary element of its Social Fund – the crisis loans for general purposes and the community care grants that Job Centres Plus used to administer and to which 4,000 people in Harrow applied last year.
It is delegating the funding to local councils to distribute from April 1 as ‘in kind’ gratuities via Emergency Relief Schemes (ERS) rather than as cash payments.
The Harrow Help scheme comprises this £300,000, along with the DWP-delegated £1.2million in Discretionary Housing Payments available to those on housing benefit to mitigate the benefit cuts; a DWP-delegated £1,000 travel fund to help people get to work, training or interviews; and £100,000 of tax payers’ money that will fund long-term sustainable projects to tackle the causes of hardship such as debt or unemployment.
It is hoped families needing food through the ERS will get vouchers the same day while other products such as beds will be fulfilled as soon as possible.
