Crisis Payments are one of the elements of the “Crisis and Resilience Fund” (CRF), which is funded by the UK Government
The Crisis Payment scheme will offer short term support to Low-income Households which have experienced a Financial Shock.
A Financial Shock has been defined by the UK government as “a sudden, unexpected expense or drop in income.”
Examples of financial shock could include, but are not restricted to: -
- a sudden, unexpected, loss of income or reduced hours.
- an unexpected essential bill or expense.
- a delay in the payment of your Benefits or a reduction in the amount you receive in your DWP benefits.
- illness, caring responsibilities or a family emergency which causes you to incur additional expense.
- urgent housing issues, that cause additional unavoidable expense.
Who could be eligible for a crisis payment?
To qualify for a crisis payment, you must: -
- be a Sefton resident and
- Be the person in the property with primary responsibility for payment of household bills (solely or jointly); and
- Have experienced a sudden, unexpected financial shock, or drop in income; and
- Be in a low-income household
Generally, we are likely to consider you to be in a low-income household if you are claiming one or more of the following:
- Universal Credit,
- income related Employment and Support Allowance
- Pension Credit
- Housing Benefit
- Council Tax Reduction (for being on a low income)
Or:
- Have earnings under:
- £25,000 a year for a single person without dependent children*
- £34,000, if you have dependent children* or if you are part of a couple.
*a dependent child is a child that you or your partner receives Child Benefit for.
This is not a fixed definition of a “low-income household” and we will consider all applications we receive using the above criteria as a guide
How do I apply for a Crisis Payment?
You can use this application form to apply for a Crisis Payment.
If you are unable to apply online yourself, you can:
- ask for a telephone application by ringing the councils contact centre on 0151 934 3377 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm);
- visit the council’s offices in person at the following locations:
Bootle One Stop Shop
324 Stanley Road
Bootle
L20 3ET
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
Southport One Stop Shop (by appointment only)
The Atkinson Library
Lord Street
Southport
PR8 1DB
Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm
What types of support can the crisis payment scheme provide.
If an application is approved, in most cases, we will provide cash support.
This will usually be in the form of a post office payout voucher sent to you by email. In most cases, this will be within two working days of our decision to award a crisis payment
Once received, you can simply take the voucher to a local post office along with ID and proof of your address. You voucher will be exchanged for cash, for the amount shown on your voucher.
If you have not received the voucher by email within three working days from when your application was approved, please check your email junk/spam folder before contacting the Council about it.
However, in some cases, we may decide to provide help by a different method, depending on the nature of the crisis and your individual circumstances, (e.g. provision of furniture or white goods from trusted suppliers).
What evidence will I need to provide?
We may need you to provide evidence of your low-income or details of the financial shock you are experiencing.
If we need you to provide evidence, we will tell you what we need, along with and how to send it to us.
How are decisions made?
We treat every application individually and as part of our decision-making process, we consider the following:
- Whether the eligibility conditions have been met.
- The individual circumstances of the applicant and their household
- The nature of the crisis
- How the crisis has occurred
- The type and amount of help needed
- Whether the support could be provided by other means (e.g. help from family / a DWP budgeting advance or other type of borrowing by the applicant.
- Whether it is “reasonable” for financial support to be provided from taxpayer funds.
- Any previous Crisis Payment applications you have made along with any previous awards
How long will it take to process my application?
We always aim to process applications as quickly as possible, and we aim for a decision to be made within five working days.
In most cases, you will be notified of the decision we make by email.