Wrexham Council set to distribute estimated £1m of discretionary cost of living support

Wrexham councillors will likely approve a set of criteria that will see over £1m disbursed locally for help with the cost of living crisis.

Earlier this year Welsh Government announced a package of measures to help households in Wales deal with the Cost of Living Crisis.

The package included £6,475,200 for Wrexham Council to award via a payment of £150 for households who qualified. Along with this, an award was made of £1,065,060 for the Council to setup and administer a discretionary scheme.

With the first scheme ending on 30 September, any unspent funding from the main scheme can be transferred into the council’s discretionary scheme.

The council say over 88% of the main scheme funding has been paid, and reminder letters have been sent to those households who have yet to provide details so they can make payment – with payments made by the end of the month to those who respond.

We asked the council about that deadline, and the Leader of the Council Cllr Mark Pritchard said, “The instruction is the scheme has to close on the 30th. But, anything which comes in before the 30th we will be obviously be sympathetic.

“We have worked hard, we have been phoning people individually, staff have worked long hours trying to do it, it’s very difficult, trying to contact people. The frankness is some people haven’t got a bank account, they only work with cash, so that’s been difficult. It hasn’t been an easy one, but I am really pleased with the work to roll it out.”

In a paper due before the Executive Board tomorrow a number of options are discussed and worked through, including an extra payment of £150 to dwellings in Bands E-I – however that is noted as costing around £2.5m so effectively ruled out, but a £60 sum would be doable, but “…it could be argued that this approach would not be targeting those in greatest need”.

The report tells councillors: “There are 3227 cases which are in Band E to I and receive a single occupancy discount and not in receipt of means tested Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

“A number of these are likely to be elderly, face greater financial hardship as they have a single household income to manage their finances.

“Awarding these cases a discretionary payment of £150 would cost £484,050”

The final suggested break down of the allocation

There are a number of occupied exemption categories which didn’t qualify for a payment under the main scheme however it is proposed these will be included in the local discretionary scheme and receive a payment of £150, eg. occupier receiving care, students and care leavers.

Problems with some sections of housing are noted: “We have considered cases in Houses in Multiple Occupation, however in the majority of cases the landlord is liable for Council Tax, but not eligible for payment as they don’t live at the property. ”

How this would be tackled is wrapped up in the £100k sum listed above, with a note “Allocation of this funding would be used to help support a range of measures, including food poverty initiatives and to further explore mechanisms to support those in HMO accommodation, where appropriate”

We asked for more detail on the tricky issue of HMOs, where an all-in style rent package could mean people due support are missed.

The Council Leader said, “It is very tricky. We will scrutinise it more, and have a look to see what the outcomes are. But, it’s a fair question and I think that side will be difficult. But, we’ll see what we end up with with the numbers, if it is a small number it is easier, if it grows, we’ll have to revisit it.”

“There has been no political decision on which option we are going with”

We asked Wrexham Council their thoughts on the current set up of the scheme, where Welsh Government allocate sums to local authorities and allow them the autonomy to ensure it gets to the right places locally, which can allow better local understanding and targeting, but also can create an administrative issue.

The Leader of the Council said, “We always have to work within the criteria and the instructions from Welsh Government. I am really pleased that they have put money forward for this discretionary scheme to help people in the time of hardship.

“In the future, I would ask the Welsh Government to work with us and have more discussions on any other schemes that they look to roll out.”

The report will be debated by members of the executive board at 10:30am , tomorrow, 27th September.