As a caring and compassionate Labour council we are very aware of the continuing financial pressures felt by Wulfrunians every day because of the on-going cost of living crisis.
We remain committed as ever to providing essential support not only for those that need urgent help now to get through these challenging times, but also to help residents improve their financial resilience for the longer term.
A total of £6.3 million has been used to help those hardest hit households from the Household Support Fund and council funding.
Since the launch of our Financial Wellbeing Strategy in July 2022 we have supported people struggling in a wide variety of ways, including:
Direct applications – 2500 individual online applications have been successfully awarded since June 2022 to the value of £320,000 to help with household essential costs.
Support in local communities- we’ve partnered with more than 75 organisations across the city to provide advice and cost of living support with food, energy and wider household essential items.
Cost of living surgeries are held at least once a month in venues across the city in partnership with key stakeholders from health, housing, welfare rights, revenue, and benefits and the wider voluntary and community sector.
Discretionary housing payments – £400,000 has been committed since April 2022 to help those struggling to meet housing costs.
Targeted support – additional support to households on capped incomes including pensioners, individuals with a disability, economically inactive households and those on low incomes.
Early intervention and prevention – a range of campaigns to raise awareness and tackle issues such as illegal money lending, debt management and affordable lending.
Welfare advice – an additional two posts created to focus on income maximisation to ensure residents can access specialist support and advice.
Your Labour Council has also contributed an additional £1.1m on top of the Household Support Fund to help families through these challenging times. With uncertainty around what government funding will be available in 2024, we’ve developed a range of services that are sustainable and will continue to provide support in the long term.
Examples include:
A couple of examples of how the council continues to invest in this work:
• The Queen’s Building (Cost of living hub) is the result of joint funding through our partnership with Wolves Foundation, the Good Shepherd and the council investing £360,000 over 3 years to bring the facility back into use. Hosting a community shop, community café and support centre for advice, guidance and targeted support to focus on increasing economic prosperity.
• Network of community shops – 8 community shops will be open across the city by March 2024, with 6 already open and saving the average household £30 per week on food. Membership stands at over 5000 members. An estimated saving of £5.8 million a year for households.
• Financial health and wellbeing – we’ve secured £500,000 through our partnership with Wolves Football club (via the Premier League) for a 3-year programme of support