Kingston upon Thames crisis assistance fund

The Kingston upon Thames council provides assistance from a crisis fund, and there are two main groups of residents that can receive help. Support is available for young people under the age of 18, and the crisis scheme is for the vulnerable, such as individual on a low income, the disabled, and older people.

If after applying for the community care or the crisis fund, if found to be eligible, the council will not provide cash. Instead, the individual will be given other forms of support. This may include, but is not limited to, a voucher for food, advice or signposting to a not-for-profit, furniture, or maybe a pre-paid card for fuel bills. So the welfare scheme in the Kingston upon Thames borough is cash poor, but the council will still try to assist the vulnerable in other ways, as noted below.

Bills and assistance assisted from the crisis fund

When applying, the council does not promise they will assist. The crisis fund is only for families or individuals that are on benefits, such as Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, or any of the other four available. Also, most of the aid will go to people from the borough who would be threatened with a health or safety issue if the council does not help them. Some of the other criteria include the following.

• The applicant needs to be over the age of 16 and local to Kingston upon Thames.
• They can’t have receives any help from the crisis scheme over the last 12 months.
• Families must be under exception financial pressure or facing a crisis, such as a floor or fire.
• Priorities will be set by the council, as the money available for the scheme is very limited and will run out.

The customer service team from the council will assess each application based on merit. The conditions above will be reviewed as well. If they issue an award, the resident will be notified of this and how it will be paid to them. Or if their application is refused, the council will try to signpost the applicant to some other type of assistance programme in the Kingston area.

The crisis fund, which is the borough’s local welfare scheme, will offer the following awards. All applications will be verified with data from the Department of Work and Pensions in order to catch fraud.

• Food assistance. This may be a voucher to a local church or charity centre in Kingston, or the council may sometimes provide an emergency box of food directly.
• Partial financial assistance in the form of payments for rent in advance costs, heating bills, or maybe even hostel expenses.
• Furniture, white goods, beds, and more from recycling centres.
• Other bills and expenses may be paid at the discretion of the Kingston upon Thames council. Or in some cases, the council will offer loans in partnership with the Surrey Save Credit Union.

When seeking help from the scheme, the person can’t have enough of an income or savings to meet the immediate needs. They also need to have tried to get money from friends or family, or applied for other charity services first. So the Kingston upon Thames funds are a last resort for solving the emergency or preventing a safety issue.

Proof of hardship and need is required. All information will be verified using tax records, DWP data, and other sources. Also, the person needs to show that their family can’t help them, and that turning directly to food banks or other social support systems are not an option. All applicants need to be prepared for this and much more.

In most cases, any support will provided in combination with advice on addressing the cause of the hardship. So the key partners that can assist with this include the Citizens Advice Bureau or National Debtline, and this organisations give residents free advice.

To learn more on the community care and crisis fund from Kingston upon Thames, or to apply, call 020 8547 5004.