Have you had your share of £1.5m help?
A city council team has saved huge sums for tenants struggling to pay their rent. Here, we look at what grants are available to those who may be in financial distress...
COUNCIL tenants received £1.5m in additional support in the past 12 months – thanks to a team highlighting benefits and grants they can apply for.
Stoke-on-trent City Council’s in-house income advice team have supported tenants with identifying £1,581,493 in the last financial year.
This is in excess of 50 per cent more than the £1m in additional income for tenants in the previous 12 months.
The Income Advice Team can help tenants if they are struggling financially and finding it difficult to pay their rent.
They can ensure they are receiving the correct benefits and income.
The team can provide personal budgeting support and advise tenants who are affected by welfare reform measures such as the Spare Room subsidy, Universal Credit or the Benefit Cap.
Over the last 12 months the team has supported tenants with applications for:
■ Discretionary Housing Payments;
■ Personal Independence Payments;
■ Housing Benefit;
■ Council tax reduction scheme;
■ Universal Credit;
■ Attendance Allowance;
■ Employment Support Allowance;
■ The Severn Trent Big difference scheme;
■ Grants from charitable organisations.
This coming year the city council has introduced a Financial Independence Fund that will see the team working with tenants to offer solutions to those in financial difficulty, including those in need of short-term assistance to successfully sustain their tenancy and accommodation.
Any award would be part of an overall package of support to maximise a tenant’s income, provide debt advice and budgeting guidance, enabling a tenant to achieve financial independence.
Councillor Carl Edwards, Cabinet Member for Housing and Environment commended the work of the team.
He said: “This service helps around 1500 tenants every year with income advice, the additional benefits that people are rightly entitled to go a long way to helping tenants pay their rent but also gives them money that they can hopefully spend locally.
“If you are a tenant that is struggling to pay your rent please contact either their housing officer or the income advice team.
“People can check for themselves if they are entitled to other benefits using our budget calculator. I would urge anyone to check regardless if they are a council tenant or not”.
■ The budget calculator can be found at https://stoke.entitledto. co.uk/home/start
■ The Income Advice Team can be contacted at incomeadviceteam@ stoke.gov.uk or telephone 01782 231564. Where a tenant has a debt they can be referred to CAB who can be contacted on 01782 408625 or email moneyadvice@snscab.org.uk