Cost of Living Support - Discretionary Scheme

The Welsh Government has provided additional funding to each local authority to enable them to provide support under a discretionary scheme, to help households considered to be in need of assistance with their living costs.

The Council’s Cabinet has decided that the discretionary scheme fund will be used to support households that meet the criteria in one of the categories below:

A £100 payment will be made to a household where:

• The person liable for council tax lives in the property as their main or primary residence on 15 February 2022; and
• The household occupies a property in Council Tax Band E or F but is not in receipt of support through the Council Tax Reduction Scheme on 15 February 2022.

A £150 payment will be made to a household where:

• The person liable for council tax lives in the property as their main or primary residence on 15 February 2022; and
• Is not eligible for a payment from the main Cost of Living scheme and
• Receives a 100% council tax exemption for one of the following reasons:
  • Exemption Class N – All residents are students
  • Exemption Class S – All residents are under the age of 18 years
  • Exemption Class U – All residents are severely mentally impaired
  • Exemption Class W – Annexe or self-contained part of a property occupied by an elderly or disabled relative of the residents living in the rest of it
  • Exemption Class X – All residents are care leavers who are 18 or over but have not yet reached the age of 25, or where every resident is either a care leaver or falls under the definition of a student or a severely mentally impaired person
  • Exemption Class E – Unoccupied because the only usual occupier left to receive personal care as a resident of a hospital, nursing or residential care home
  • Exemption Class I – Unoccupied because the only usual occupier has left the property to receive care elsewhere (other than a place mentioned in Class E)
  • Exemption Class J – Unoccupied because, the only usual occupier lives elsewhere, for the purpose of providing care to another person
  • Exemption Class K – The liable person last occupied the dwelling as their main residence and is a student studying elsewhere

A £150 payment to a household where:

• The person lives in the property as their main or primary residence on 15 February 2022; and
• Resides in a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) or temporary accommodation/supported housing where they are either responsible for energy bills directly or pay a service charge for energy costs.

Top up of the funding received from the Department for Work and Pensions for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs). DHPs help people who are struggling with housing costs and in some situations, payments can also be made to help with rent arrears and can be used to prevent people becoming homeless. The Local Authority decides how much and how often any DHP is paid, and it is a crucial tool.

The proposed additional funding will allow Caerphilly CBC to widen its criteria to assist more tenants (private and social landlord) who are struggling with the ever-increasing cost of living crisis. Many of these tenants are seeking support for the first time. The proposed increase would allow us to:

• Provide longer awards to protect our tenants and offer stability
• Offer support to more residents by relaxing our criteria.
• Provide more assistance for claimants to move to cheaper or more appropriately sized accommodation.

The following categories will be administered by the Council’s Housing Rents Section and Caerphilly Cares Team in partnership with Citizens Advice:

• Purchase of fuel vouchers for pre-payment top up vouchers for residents in fuel poverty.
• Creation of a crisis fund for residents who require financial support but do not meet eligibility criteria of existing local authority or Department for Work and Pensions means-tested schemes, for example, a resident leaving employment has to wait 5 weeks before a Universal Credit payment is made.