New fund to support families with household bills and emergency costs
Thursday, 24 November 2022
This winter, we are launching a new Crisis Fund to support families with household bills and payments, and other items.
The £45,000 Crisis Fund will be administered through our 9 children’s centres, which already work with over 4,700 families. Funding will be used to support families already known to the service, with health, housing, education and other partners able to refer families in need.
Funding will be available from December 2022, with vouchers available to primarily cover household bills and payments. However, emergency support will also be available – for example, to replace an essential household appliance that’s broken, like a fridge or washing machine, or to ensure children in the household have winter weather clothing.
Councillor Richard Wenham, Leader of Central Bedfordshire Council said:
We recognise that many families will be affected this winter as the cost of living continues to rise. Our children’s centres already work with thousands of families to provide support, and this fund could make a huge amount of difference, meaning families don’t have to make difficult choices about how to split their money.
The Crisis Fund is one of a number of measures in place to support families this winter, including food vouchers for families during the October half term and Christmas holidays, the Holiday Activities and Food programme over the Christmas holidays, funding for advice organisations and foodbanks and our network of warm spaces which residents can use during the day to keep warm as temperatures fall and energy prices rise.
We have 9 children’s centres in total: in Sandy, Shefford, Stotfold, Flitwick, Leighton Buzzard, with two in Dunstable and two in Houghton Regis. We have a dedicated cost of living information hub, which is full of information and resources that can help anyone concerned about the cost of living.