Agenda item

To submit a report by the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer.

The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer was presented to the Executive for the consideration.

Councillor Robin Williams, Portfolio Member for Finance, Corporate Business and Customer Experience presented the report and said that Welsh Government has provided additional funding to each local authority to enable support under a discretionary scheme, in order to help households considered to be in need of assistance with their living costs.  The schemes are intended to provide immediate support to households as Wales recovers from the pandemic and to deal with the impact of increasing energy and other living costs. In developing the local Discretionary Scheme, each local authority has completed autonomy to target the funds to best support its residents and to ensure its approach best suits the needs of individual households.  The schemes are as follows:-

The Main Scheme – approximately 23,000 households on Anglesey will receive £150 payment if they are in Council Tax Bands A to D, along with any households in receipt of assistance through the Council Tax Reduction Scheme living in properties in bands E to I.  This is circa 75% to 80% of household population.

Local Authority Discretionary Scheme – circa. £580,000 is available to the Council to administer based on local need and demand, in order to support households affected by the substantial increased costs of living. 

The Portfolio Member referred as to how the Authority will distributed the funding of both the scheme as is noted within the report.

The Leader of the Council wished to thank the partnership working in disturbing this funding which will help people in the challenging situation that is faced at present due to the increase in the costs of living.

It was RESOLVED :-

·           To approve the groups in 2.1.1 to the report to be provided with £150, with a budget of 150,000 administered by the Revenues and Benefits Section of the Isle of Anglesey County Council;

·           To approve the hardship funding for residents moving out of emergency accommodation into settled accommodation :-

‘Up to £300 of funding to cover food and/or fuel costs during their move on into more settled accommodation.  Funding can be used to cover immediate fuel costs, such as oil.  Additionally, this aspect can support furniture costs.  This funding of £50,000 to be administered by the Statutory Homeless Services based on assessed need.’

·           To approve £150 for Anglesey residents that are in Higher Education and rent or own accommodation on the Island that were exempt from phase one :-

·         £5,000 to be provided to Grwp Llandrillo Menai to administer for the above group;

£5,000 to be provided to Bangor University to administer for the above group.

·           To approve the following for phase two of the cost of living scheme for Anglesey residents that are ex-forces/veterans and are in financial hardship.  This funding will be based on an assessed need for up to £300 payment per household in need:-

‘£10,000 to be provided to the Anglesey British Legion & SAFFA as part of their offering when supporting veterans in hardship’

·           To approve the following groups for Anglesey residents that are in financial hardship and have no access to additional hardship funding, such as the Discretionary Assistance Fund.  Funding can support food and fuel costs.

·         This aspect will support residents that are ‘in-work’ poverty.  This funding will be based on an assessed need for up to £300 payment that can be administered by the internal Welfare Rights Unit (J E O’Toole Centre), the internal Financial Inclusion Team and CAB Ynys Môn;

·         This aspect will cover all socio-demographic backgrounds and is focused on the evidence of hardship.  £100,000 to be administered by the Welfare Rights Unit (J E O’Toole Centre), the internal Financial Inclusion Team and CAB Ynys Môn.

·                    To authorise the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer to increase budgets for organisations based on an accepted business case, demonstrating the need and demand.