Bracknell Forest Emergency Grant Scheme

Bracknell Forest operates a welfare programme that is called the Emergency Grant Scheme. The council uses funding from the central government to help families on a low income or those individuals that are living in poverty.

There are two type of assistance provided from the scheme. They both have different application processes in place and assist with paying different types of bills. The benefits available to clients are as follows.

-The Home Emergency grant scheme provides vouchers for basic living needs, such as to a food bank, emergency transportation, and pre-paid cards for topping off electric meters.
-Crisis grants in the Bracknell Forest borough can help with housing needs, such as moving people out of care or keeping them in their current home.

Applications for the emergency grants in Bracknell Forest

Any assistance is at the discretion of the council. They can deny a request for any or no reason. However, when that occurs, there is an appeal process. The local authorities may also link the applicant to other local schemes too instead, such as a budgeting loan from the Department of Work and Pensions office. Or they can send the family to a charity food bank or programmes for paying heating costs.

When seeking a voucher from the scheme, the applicant will meet with a staff member. They will need proof of need, income, and their current expenditures (so a budget). Any financial assistance from welfare will only be provided at most one time per year, as these are short term, crisis programmes. The Home Emergency Grant Scheme is only offered when the person is out of all other resources too.

Emergency welfare is only for people local to Bracknell Forest, and they need to have been in the area at least 3 of the past 5 years. This will ensure any money paid out by the authorities is kept in the area. The applicant also needs to be over the age of 16 and be at risk of a health crisis, such as be out of food or about to have their heat shut off. So there are many criteria to be met in order to get a grant.

Bills that a grant can pay

The Bracknell Forest will authorise this. Since they do not provide the applicant any cash, the council will instead provide the money directly to the company or creditor that the family is in arrears too. Or a voucher is used instead. So all expenses to be covered are assessed by the specialist from the local office.

What this means is that if the authorities authorise a heating bill to be paid, they will issue funds directly to the energy supplier, such as E.On, or any of the other big six. If welfare is used for food, then a parcel will be given that can last a few days. Other expenses, including clothing or white goods/appliances from a store, are common requests. Only in vary rare cases will the family be given a pre-paid card, and this will be topped off for paying only certain bills.

In some cases, the Home emergency grant application will be denied. Instead the Bracknell Forest borough council will provide the person a loan as part of budgeting advance. This is normally for those households that are now on the Universal Credit (UC).

This operates similar to welfare in that in can pay for emergency living expenses. But the government funds will need to be repaid to the council, and the client normally has up to 18 months for this. But whether a loan or grant is used will depend on an assessment done for each applicant.

To apply for the grant based welfare scheme, there is a Bracknell Forest Emergency Duty Services number to call. It is open 5 days per week, and the telephone number is 01344 786 543. The post address is Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1JD, if someone wants to drop in for more information.