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The Camden Borough Council can provide grants to vulnerable and low income residents. The local welfare scheme will help people that are in a crisis or those residents that are threatened with leaving the borough due to a financial hardship.

Grants are awarded as part of Community Awards or the council may offer a Crisis form of payment. The aim of each of these schemes is to cover a different need, such as community awards can provide furniture, bedding, and the like. The other resource, crisis grants, are aimed at assisting with a certain type of bill that if not paid could lead to a safety issue, such as energy or food. In either cases, local welfare was the borough’s replacement for the social fund and any awards provided are limited and at the discretion of the council.

Emergency grants in Camden

If the applicant has insufficient money to pay for certain living expenses, this is when the council may be able to help. Crisis awards are intended to ensure that a dangerous situation is prevented. This will usually involve some type of health or crisis situation. The council will only pay at most 60% of the bill that is due, up to a maximum.

At the discretion of the council, the team will determine the priority of the applicant. This will determine how much aid is offered, the uses of the funds, and what form it will take, such as cash or a pre-paid card.

Camden local welfare can provide clothing to a family or an emergency food parcel. Other use of the grants will be to provide the household a pre-paid fuel card for their electric or gas bills. Or if the home needs some way to heat it, then funds may be used for heating equipment or a connection fee.

Crisis awards are only provided at most twice per twelve months. The council will only step in to assist if the applicant has no other friends, family, or money available to them for paying the bills. Some of the other eligibility criteria include the applicant needs to be over the age of 18, local to Camden and on a low income or benefits.

Also, welfare is only an option if the person has first applied to other charities or financial aid programmes and was declined for some reason. So this means the family needs to be out of options and in a true financial emergency. They should have done everything possible first before applying to welfare, such as requesting a voucher from local food bank.

Housing and basic needs from community awards

The aim is to keep the family in their home. So there can be assistance for people that are leaving residential or institutional care, or that may be help in paying the rent deposit as part of resettlement. Other uses of the welfare funds will be for the disabled or seniors to acquire furniture or to pay for items they need for a safe home.

Community care awards will only be provided by the Camden council for those people on benefits, such as Universal Credit or the Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance. Other benefits may also qualify as well, and individuals should contact the council at 0203 324 0383 for details.

Applications can be done at the council office, or over the phone. Please remember that awards are at the discretion of the authorities. There are no guarantees to receiving financial support from the Camden local welfare scheme. In fact, many families may not be given a grant but instead be signposted to other not-for-profits or central government programmes instead. For more information, ring 0203 324 0383.