Today Birmingham City Council’s Cabinet welcomed the government's £12.79 million Household Support funding for Birmingham. This comes less than a year after Birmingham City Council’s Labour Administration axed their own cost of living support program.
Cllr Robert Alden, Leader of the Opposition and Birmingham Local Conservatives said,
This funding will provide vital support to vulnerable residents of Birmingham, especially at a time when the Council disgracefully axed their own welfare provision scheme. As well as providing hardship grants, it will also provide food, vouchers, etc to support families in need. There will also be a program of work to help try and lift people out of economic insecurity long term.
Cllr Ewan Mackey, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Birmingham Local Conservatives added,
The fact that our local libraries will be used to deliver some of the IT courses shows how vital the full library network across the city is and how important it is that all 35 libraries are kept open. I hope the Labour Administration sees the error of their ways and scraps their plans to close libraries.
Notes
Household Support Fund: Thematic &
Household Support Groups
Anticipated Number of
Households Supported
Total
1 Hardship Grant Scheme Summer 19,325 £4,200,000
2 Children and Families Directorate 1,200 £660,000
3 BCT Support to Vulnerable Young People 5,250 £1,560,000
4 Vulnerable Adults: Discharge from Hospital to Home 1,700 £350,000
5 Food System Support: Food Banks, Food Projects, Pantries 31,250 £980,000
6 Warm Welcome - wrap around & embedded support, tangible items – available for over 300 spaces and in all 69 wards TBC £1,000,000
7 Energy Support: Crisis Assistance, Green Doctor Service, Warm Welcome 5,300 £1,200,000
8 Advice Services: Help Line, Call Centre, Extended NAIS Hours 35,000 £409,198
9 Emerging & Existing Compatible Pressures: Temp Accom & Homeless Resettlement Support 3,250 £950,000
10 HSF Evaluation: Rounds 1-5 HSF Impact Review & Lessons Learned £65,000
11 Whole Programme Demand Contingency for interventions 1-11: Overseen by CoL SRG £1,006,937
12 Programme Management: HSF Lead, Finance, Legal, Commissioning, Contract Managers, Complaints, Enquires, FOIs, etc £410,000
Total: £12,791,135.04
