Cost of Living and welcoming places
Support from the Council
Welfare Support Service
The Welfare Support Service is the first point of contact for money advice in South Tyneside.
They provide debt, benefit and money advice on the phone, in your local area or if necessary, in your home.
The service is free, impartial and confidential.
Household Support Fund
The Department for Work and Pensions has provided extra funding for the 2023 / 2024 financial year.
This funding is to help towards:
- energy costs
- water bills
- food
- other essential costs
Who is eligible
You may be eligible for extra financial support if you:
- are struggling financially due to the cost of living crisis
- will not be eligible for the first cost of living payment (2023 / 2024) that will be issued to qualifying households between 25 April to 17 May 2023
The qualifying benefit(s) for the first payment is:
- Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Income Support
- Pension Credit
- Universal Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Working Tax Credit
If you did not receive one of the benefits above between 26 January to 25 February 2023 you could be eligible for support from the Household Support Fund.
There are household income and savings criteria that you will need to meet to be eligible for these awards.
If you meet the criteria for assistance, a single payment of £150 per household will be made.
If you don't meet the eligibility criteria
If you do not meet the criteria for the above support but are struggling to meet your day to day living expenses, you may be eligible for support under our local welfare provision service.
Apply for the Household Support Fund
To apply for help, please submit an application.
Please upload your latest payslip or proof of self-employed earnings to show you are currently employed or working.
Please make sure you have told us about all members of your household on the application form, and details of your household income.
Failure to provide this information may cause delay to your application's processing time.
Support through the Local Welfare Provision Scheme
You may be eligible for support through our Local Welfare Provision Scheme.
Funding for this scheme has been increased using money from the Household Support Fund.
This scheme provides short term financial help if you have a financial crisis or need help with your daily living expenses because you are experiencing exceptional hardship.
You will need to apply for this fund to check if you are eligible.
Applications will be considered on a case by case basis. You will need to provide proof of your circumstances.
Support is provided in the form of vouchers that you can use for food and energy.
Apply for the Local Welfare Provision Scheme
We are currently experiencing a high demand for local welfare provision and crisis applications. We are working through these applications in date and time order and aim to contact applicants as soon as possible. We appreciate the nature of applications mean these are time sensitive and we are doing our best to speak to people as soon as we can. If your application is for household items like white goods etc, the processing time for these applications is 30 days. We apologise but due to the volume of applications we are receiving at this moment, there may be some delay. We will contact applications by telephone or email as soon as possible. If it has been over 2 working days since you made your application and you have not been contacted, please contact us. Please note: Our working days are Monday to Friday.High demand for local welfare provision and crisis support applications