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Help with energy bills
The government will give every household in Great Britain £400 off their electricity bill. This is called the Energy Bills Support Scheme. You don’t need to do anything to get the money and you won’t have to pay it back. You’ll get the £400 in 6 instalments starting from October 2022. You’ll get: £66 in October and November £67 in December, January, February and March If you have an electricity meter and pay your bills every month or quarterly, your supplier will automatically take the amounts off your energy bill each month. If you have a prepayment meter, your supplier will confirm how you’ll get the £400 closer to October 2022. They’ll either:
Extra help for people on the lowest incomes People who get means tested benefits will get an extra payment of £650. You are eligible for this support if you get any of these benefits:
The money will be paid in two instalments. The first instalment will be paid if:
We do not yet know the qualifying dates for the second payment. If you aren't currently getting a qualifying benefit, it is worth checking now if you could be entitled to it and putting in a claim. The £650 is split into two payments:
You do not need to claim it. It will be paid automatically if you qualify for it. It will probably be paid the same way you usually get your benefits paid. The first installment will be paid
Find out more about support available and information about energy bills at these links: Citizen's Advice Turn2Us Making a complaint to your energy supplier Making a complaint to the energy ombudsman Calderdale CAB: Tips for saving energy Household Support Fund Your local council might help you pay for things like:
Ask your local council if they run a welfare assistance or Household Support Fund scheme. You can find out how to contact your local council on GOV.UK. Find information about Calderdale Council's Household Support Fund here. 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. Council Tax Rebate The council tax rebate will provide a payment of £150 to households living in council tax bands A – D. Local councils are responsible for determining who is eligible and making payments. These will be made from April 2022 and will not need to be paid back. If you live in an eligible property and you pay your council tax by direct debit, your local council will generally make the payment directly to your bank account, starting from April 2022. You do not need to do anything in the meantime, unless your council requests further details from you. If you live in an eligible property and you do not pay your council tax by direct debit, your local council will contact you with details of how to claim your rebate. You do not need to do anything in the meantime. If you are not sure which council tax band your property is in, you can check by visiting: https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands Find more information about support with the cost of living at these links: Citizen's Advice Government Cost of Living Support Factsheet Calderdale Council Noah's Ark Centre Focus4Hope Calder Community Cares Local Food Banks Find information about local food banks here.
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Spotlight Development Grants Programme
Healthy Minds is working in collaboration with Rethink Mental Illness to tackle mental health inequalities in Calderdale and to shine a spotlight on the organisations which work with those who do not usually access services Upper Calder Valley worker Sam has put these resources together for you to get the most out of summer.
Click the buttons below to download the pdfs: Healthy Minds Recovery & Support Service has been running for over 8 years, offering a wide range of support to help people achieve and maintain a better state of emotional health and wellbeing. We have several peer support groups throughout Calderdale, along with courses, workshops and advice drop-in sessions. Around 4000 people have benefited from this valuable support over the years and over 300 are currently supported by the team. Recovery & Support has become recognised as an important element in Calderdale’s mental health “system”, as an alternative to, or in addition to, NHS and Council mental health services.
Despite this, we have not been able to secure ongoing funding for Recovery & Support and we have no choice but to close the service at the end of September. This affects both the Upper Valley and Halifax-based Recovery & Support teams. This is a huge loss to all of us at Healthy Minds, to the staff team who have invested so much energy in all the service has achieved over the years, to Calderdale's mental health services and, above all, to people who are supported by the service. The team has built a presence in some communities that helps bring people together and keeps people safe. We believe that Recovery & Support still has a vital role in Calderdale but we cannot continue to fulfil this role without funding. It is frustrating to be forced to close a service at a time when we can see that people need more emotional support. The charity sector is facing difficulties in the wake of the Covid pandemic: funders’ priorities have changed and there is more competition than ever for less funding, coinciding with increased demand and pressure on services in the NHS as well as charities. Over the past two years, we’ve submitted funding applications totalling over £800,000 but few have been successful in the current climate. We’ve been speaking with funders and Council and NHS commissioners over the past 18 months, warning that the Recovery & Support service was at risk without secure investment; we’ve argued that the service plays a role in local, regional and national strategies on improving mental health and wellbeing, supporting people affected by floods, and helping people cope with life challenges like discrimination and poverty – but none of that has translated into the financial support we and others in the charity sector need to keep vital services going. Although the loss of Recovery & Support will affect people, Healthy Minds is still here and our other services will remain available for the foreseeable future as they have separate funding streams. Between now and September, the team will work with people who come to Recovery & Support to use the resilience and skills they have gained, and connect them with alternative support in Healthy Minds and other organisations where possible. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that anyone who needs it can get support. In the short term, we plan to increase availability of Safespace so that people can have one to one emotional support during the day as well as in evenings. We will explore the possibility of supporting trained volunteers to continue some groups and activities. We can’t say for sure what will happen next but we want to try to find ways to continue what we can or to rebuild this valuable support in some fashion. Of course, the next steps depend on having the resources to do anything and we really need people to get behind us to help figure out what those next steps could be. Healthy Minds’ Chief Officer is involved in ongoing work across West Yorkshire to promote and strengthen the role of organisations like ours in health and other strategies, to gain more recognition and support for what we do. The changes this will achieve won’t happen in time to save Recovery & Support but will hopefully create a more stable footing for charities and community groups in the long-term. Healthy Minds is all about finding ways through challenges and we’re facing one ourselves at the moment – but we remain as committed as ever to providing support for everyone in Calderdale. |
