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The latest cost of living support is now available

Published: 30 May 2024

Household support fund is available for unexpected essentials like school uniform Household support funding is open

The latest round of the Household Support Fund has is now available to help residents in need who have been struggling to cope with the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis. 

 

People from all walks of life are struggling to make ends meet. As savings are used up and unexpected bills arrive, many more people may need to seek financial support. 

 

And as we head towards the end of the school year and with the average price of a new collection of branded school uniform – including PE kit- at around £250, we’re seeing families coming to us for help to cover the costs. 

 

One family had to travel to Exmouth to find the approved branded uniform for their school in Teignbridge. As they don’t have a car, and couldn’t afford transport, we were able to cover the cost of the train fare and the new uniform for the child through a household support fund payment.  

 

This is just one example of the kind of one-off expenses that is tipping many of our residents into the red. 

 

Cllr Lin Goodman-Bradbury, Teignbridge Council's Lead Member for Communities, said:

“We’re all having to tighten our belts with things like the cost of food still rising, rent going up and energy costs still taking up a large portion of our household incomes. 

 

“This is where the household support fund can help relieve the pressure of an additional cost, unexpected bill or to help bridge a payday gap.  

“Our cost of living events saw homeowners, tenants, young and old people seeking advice and help to cover food bills or other basic household essentials or to find out how they can reduce their energy and water usage to cut bills."
Cllr Lin Goodman-Bradbury
Cllr Lin Goodman-Bradbury

 

In the last round of household support funding, working with our partners we helped 1503 households with over £650,000 distributed. 

  

This included funding for housing support such as rent and bills, benefit support and funding given out by our community and voluntary sector partner Teignbridge CVS and to Exeter Community Energy to provide fuel poverty and Energy efficiency advice.” 

 

Applications to the Household Support Fund are confidential so if you have never needed help in the past there is no shame in doing it now if your circumstances have changed and you can’t pay your bills and are getting into debt. 

 

Find out how the Household Support Fund can help by going to our website and take a look at our Cost of Living web pages for more information on what support you can get. 

 

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