Help For Households

As costs have risen, many households have begun to struggle paying for their essentials, with debts rising too. This has left many households wondering what help is available to them. Recently launched by the UK Government, the Help for Households campaign aims to bring together all the help available with the cost of living, creating a toolkit for families.

The Government’s Help for Households campaign outlines 6 key areas where help is available for the rising cost of living and how you can access this. Visit the Government page here.

The Household Support Fund aims to support the most vulnerable households to pay essential bills such as food or energy bills. Contact your local council for more information.

Other help available includes budgeting loans, help with rent, council tax support schemes and more.

If you’re on benefits or have a low income you may be eligible for the Warm Home Discount Scheme, some home energy support payments and improvement schemes. Find more information here.

The Warm Home Discount will offer a one-off £150 discount in energy bills from October. If you are eligible, your electricity supplier will apply the discount to your bill automatically. You qualify if you get the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit or if you are on a low income and have high energy costs.

The Winter Fuel Payment, available to pensioners, enables older households to receive between £100 and £300 to help pay heating bills. This is in addition to the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment.

For more help and energy-saving tips, click here.

Available Income Support – the ‘benefits guidance’ link drops you out of the portal.

Help Finding work – the link is to a cost f living page which has no reference to finding work.  I would remove the first sentence and just leave this, ’Alongside the Find A Job website, you can get personalised job support through JobHelp and could claim tax relief on work-related expenses, such as travel.

If you are struggling to pay childcare, you could be entitled to tax free support which enables you to receive up to £500 every 3 months for each child.

In addition, you could get 15 or 30 hours free childcare depending on the age of your child.

These both run alongside childcare benefits. Check your eligibility here.

Free school meals, national breakfast clubs and healthy start vouchers are also all on offer. Find out more here.

The Government offers a variety of benefits to supplement a household income and help support low-income households. You can read more on our benefits guidance page here.

More recently, the level of which you pay National Insurance (NI) has risen, meaning you could earn just over £12k a year tax free.

This section also details support for those struggling to pay their tax bill, suggesting an instalment-based repayment plan. If you cannot pay your tax due to the cost of living, contact HMRC as soon as possible to highlight the issue and discuss available support.

If you are on universal credit, you could be entitled to 50% off travel costs with a Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card with the aim to help unemployed find work.

If you use rail often, it may also be worth looking into a railcard. Although this requires an upfront cost, you can save 1/2 on all train journeys.

For pensioners, free bus passes are still available. Order yours here.

Finally, the Help for Households toolkit outlines what support is available for finding work. Alongside the Find A Job website, you can get personalised job support through JobHelp and could claim tax relief on work-related expenses, such as travel.