Torridge District Council launches third round of Household Support Funding
Torridge District Council has launched the third round of Household Support Funding with effect from Monday 17th October. Nationally £421m has been made available by central government to cover the period October 2022 to March 2023. Devon County Council has received £5m from this sum and allocated £193k for Household Support in the Torridge district.
In line with previous schemes the purpose of the grant is to provide support to households experiencing hardship due to the significant rises in living costs over recent months. The grants will be available to help people buy food, pay essential utility bills or meet other essential living or housing costs.
People will also be able to apply for assistance with other winter necessities such as warm clothing, blankets, and boiler servicing or repairs. Also falling under the criteria for the scheme will be cases where households are perhaps struggling to meet the cost of purchasing or repairing white goods such as fridges, freezers and ovens. To ensure a fairer overall distribution, priority will be given to applicants who have not received previous hardship funding in the current financial year from either Torridge’s own Hardship fund or the second tranche of nationally funded Household Support. Due to the limited funds available the housing costs provision under the scheme, for example to cover rent arrears, will be limited to exceptional cases of genuine emergency.
Access to the fund will once again be via an application form, with initial applications being processed by the council’s partner and local charity organisation, Encompass via this link Torridge Household Fund
Alternatively, people can contact Encompass by telephone if they do not have access to the internet on 01271 371499.