3,500 struggling South Tyneside families apply to hardship fund - council hands out £200,000 to help people through crisis

Earlier this year, South Tyneside Council set up a Hardship Fund especially for people who need help with daily living expenses such as food, heating and electricity.

The Government-backed scheme was distributed to local authorities to address hardship and provide relief for vulnerable households.

In South Tyneside, the scheme was managed through the existing Local Welfare Provision Service and was open to anyone suffering financial hardship due to Covid-19.

According to figures prepared for councillors next week, there has been a huge demand in hardship claimants.

Up until July, 3,489 applications had been received and 1,754 approved, with more than £200,000 in claims awarded overall.

A total of 3,037 (87%) were first applications while the rest were second, third or fourth.

Around 37.6% of successful claims came from single people, almost three-fifths contained children and two-fifths considered themselves to have a disability.

The figures also showed the majority of successful claimants for the hardship fund were renting either socially or privately, with almost half of successful claimants aged between 30-44 years old.

In addition, 69% of successful claimants were female and only 3% of successful claimants were more than 60 years old.

A presentation prepared for the council’s People Select Committee stated the “policy was open to abuse” with extra staff brought in to deal with the workload.

Other challenges included an “IT system [which] was not designed to deal with the hardship fund” and those with multiple claims facing difficulties using the council’s dedicated telephone line.

Despite large numbers of successful claims, council chiefs said there are several challenges and concerns going forward.

Some of these include the potential of a ‘second lockdown’, increases in redundancies, the end of the furlough scheme, evictions and addressing rent arrears and sanctions/deductions from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Members of the council’s People Select Committee will receive an update on the South Tyneside Hardship Fund on Wednesday, September 2.

The remote meeting starts at 10am and will be broadcast on the council’s YouTube channel.

To watch live, visit: www.southtyneside.gov.uk/watchcouncilmeetings

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