Category

• Promising Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Mitigation

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Poverty driver

• Provide benefit in-kind (material)
• Increase income from benefits

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Keywords

• No recourse to public funds
• Debt
• Financial Assistance
• Housing Costs
• Fuel poverty

Aim

The Financial Insecurity Fund aims:

-To ensure those with no recourse to public funds have the same access to crisis payments as those who have recourse to public funds.

-To mitigate the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic (and latterly the cost-of living crisis and the roll out of Universal Credit) on those experiencing financial hardship.

Summary

The Financial Insecurity Fund is a local fund which provides assistance to those on low incomes in the Perth and Kinross area. If a household is struggling due to the cost-of-living crisis and has no recourse to public funds, they can apply for financial assistance through the fund to pay back debts. The debts, for which the fund provides assistance include for example gas, electricity, broadband and Council Tax debts, as well as rent arrears. The Fund also makes one-off payments to those experiencing rural hardship and can contribute towards the cost of oil/gas and solid fuel. A comprehensive welfare benefit check is an integral part of the assessment criteria for the Fund ensuring that longer-term assistance is provided where possible from existing statutory provision.

What difference does it make?

• More people in contact with the Welfare Rights Team.
• With an approval rate of 52% (for 2022/23), the reasons for rejected applications were repeat applications where awards had already been made, insufficient evidence of debt status, or situations where the issue had already been resolved through the existing benefit system.
• The number of comprehensive benefit checks has increased as a part of the Financial Insecurity Fund that delivers them.
• More people are aware of what their entitlements are and are in receipt of them.
• Since April 2022 until October 2023, an additional £2.3 million in benefit gains was secured to the 521 applicants of the Financial Insecurity Fund through the associated benefit checks.
• Reduction in people’s debts. This has seemed a sustainable debt remedy as the service only provides assistance with debts less than £3,000, and with arrears from no earlier than April 2018 when Universal Credit was rolled out in PKC.

Key take-aways

• The demand for the Financial Insecurity Fund is created by the gaps which exist in the benefits system
• those with little to no financial assistance are directed to them including people with no recourse to public funds.
• Adjusting the criteria for claiming funds annually is required due to the changing socioeconomic conditions that affect the groups of people in receipt of the fund to ensure the areas with the biggest demand receive the most support.
• Those with no recourse to public funds have an array of needs for financial assistance. This ranges from rural hardship to child payments and paying off debts.

 

Organisations

Perth & Kinross Council Welfare Rights Team

Location

Perth & Kinross Local Authority Area

Contact