Check if you can get help from your local council

If your household is in council tax band A-D, your local council should have sent you a £150 council tax rebate in April 2022. You don’t need to pay it back.

If you can’t get the rebate, the council might still offer you financial help. For example, they might help you if you’re in council tax bands E to H and you get certain benefits. Contact your local council to find out more.

Getting help with essential costs

Your local council might help you pay for things like your energy and water bills, food or essential items like clothes or an oven. This help is known as ‘welfare assistance’ or the ‘Household Support Fund’. Each council runs their own scheme. You’ll need to check if you can get support and what type of support is available.

Foodbanks

You don’t have to be getting benefits to get help from your local council. If you do get benefits, they won’t be affected if you start getting money from a welfare assistance or Household Support Fund scheme. It was announced in the government’s Autumn Statement that a further £1billion is being provided to extend this scheme for another year from April 2023.

Foodbanks provide emergency food and support to millions of people every day. They work with a wide range of agencies such as doctors, health visitors, social workers and police to identify people in need and issue them with a foodbank voucher. CCHA is one of the agencies that are able to refer you to your local foodbank. Vouchers can then be used for a foodbank parcel that has three days’ nutritionally balanced and non-perishable food.