Support for cost of living – are you eligible?

A new phase of the Household Support Scheme will launch on Monday, October 10 – with some changes to who can apply.

The Government have announced the scheme will be further extended to help with the ongoing cost of living crisis.

The Household Support Scheme will continue to be run by the Council and local partners, to help residents of Blackburn with Darwen to access food, support with energy and water bills, and other essential items.

The cost of living crisis has become the main issue facing many households across Blackburn and Darwen this year. Many households are struggling with rising energy bills, the price of food and petrol prices, inflation rises and the energy price cap which remains higher than previous years.

The Council and local organisations and partners are doing all we can to help, including the Household Support Scheme and signposting people in need to support and assistance across the borough. These include:

• Age UK
• BwD Healthy Living
• Rummage Rescuers
• Jubilee Tower Credit Union
• Care Network
• BwD Home Start
• BwD Carers Service
• Shelter

The focus of the new phase of the Household Support Scheme is targeting support to those who are not eligible for income related benefits and have not had any other government cost of living support to date. One application per household.

Household support may be available for:

• Blackburn with Darwen residents, children, families and adults
• single adult households with an annual income below £23,267
• two or more adult (over 18s) households with an annual income below £34,904

Please note, we may ask you about your savings. Savings must be below £16,000

To apply, you must be able to provide evidence of your total household income in the form of wage slips and bank statements, showing your name and address and upload these to your application.

You can apply here from Monday, October 10: https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/WinterHSS

If you have applied previously under the criteria “Income related benefits” you will not be eligible to apply again in this phase of the Household Support Scheme.

If you have recently applied for any income based benefits and will not receive any Cost of Living Payments (claims processed after 25^th May 22) you may be eligible for the Household Support Scheme.

The funding is aimed at households who will not receive financial support under any schemes as listed below:

Cost of living payments

• £650 one-off Cost of Living Payment for those on means tested benefits
• £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment

Please check www.gov.uk website for information on payment dates

If you do not meet criteria for HSS you can still complete an application form and the team can offer you information and advice about universal services and schemes you may be able to access.

Councillor Vicky McGurk, Executive Member for Finance and Governance, said:

I am really pleased that we can announce another extension to the Household Support Scheme, and also that we have been able to widen the number of people eligible for the support.

We know that more support is crucial at the moment as the cost of living crisis continues into the Autumn and Winter, and we know that people in Blackburn and Darwen are struggling with rising costs and bills. The majority of people in the borough will be affected by this, we are truly all in this together, and there is absolutely no shame is asking for some help to get through this.

If you are struggling at the moment then please do take a look at the scheme and the eligibility criteria to see if you could receive help.”

Further support available for residents:

Food support

• If you are suffering hardship or struggling to make ends meet the Household Support Family Food Boxes are available from the Community and Business Partners organisation. To apply or to arrange collection, please emailvictoria@cbpartners.org
• The Healthy Start scheme can help pregnant mums or if you have a child under 4 years old. Further information on Healthy Start can be found on the GOV.UK website.

Energy advice

With the rising cost of energy, there are a number of government schemes and grants available to help people with their fuel bills.

• Warm Home Discount Scheme

The Warm Home Discount scheme will be expanded, so nearly 3 million low-income households will benefit from a £150 discount.

• Winter Fuel Payment

The Winter Fuel Payment is a government grant between £100 and £300 for people born before 26 September 1955 to help pay their heating bills.

• Cold Weather Payment

The Cold Weather Payment is automatically given to eligible households in areas where temperatures are recorded below 0 degrees for 7 consecutive days.

• Other schemes

Some energy suppliers also run their own energy grants to provide financial aid for those who need it, you don’t necessarily need to be their customer to take advantage.

White goods

The scheme can help provide essential items such as white goods to enable you to cook and store food such as a cooker, fridge, freezer etc.

We will only accept applications for 1 white good item per household based on all applications received from the property since 1st December 2021.

Before applying for the scheme, you will need a MyBwD account. Watch a tutorial on how to create an account if you do not have one.

Once you have submitted your application, we will contact you within 10 working days. Please do not re-submit your application.

Due to high numbers of applications we have extended the contact period to 20 working days, we hope to return to 10 working days in due course.

This support, and more, can be found here: https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/coronavirus/support-residents