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The Crisis Support scheme is designed to assist vulnerable people with essential items which they do not have the money to pay for themselves due to an emergency or crisis situation. Note we cannot normally assist with food gas and electric where your normal benefits or income are in payment and you are short of funds due to struggling to manage on the income you have.

Who can we help?

To be considered for an award of Crisis Support, you must:

• Except in exceptional circumstances, normally live in Torbay and have done so for the last three months
• Not be a person subject to immigration control or have no recourse to public funds
• Show that you do not have the funds to pay for the items yourself or could not easily get the money from another source
• Not already have been awarded the maximum number of payments – only two payments are normally allowed in any rolling 12 month period
• Not be waiting for an application for benefit through the Jobcentre Plus Office. If this is the case you need to telephone 0845 608 8545 as you may be able to apply for a Short Term Benefit Advance.
• If you are waiting for a Universal Credit claim to be processed you will need to check whether you are eligible for an “advance payment” whilst you are waiting for your first payment to come through. Crisis Support would not normally be paid if you can have one.

Grants available

Daily living expenses

We can consider awards for food, gas, electric or any other essential daily costs but only where you are normally responsible for paying for them. If food is awarded it will be in the form of a food parcel from a local food bank.

Rent in advance

If you are receiving Housing Benefit or Universal Credit Housing Costs you should apply for Discretionary Housing Payments to help with rent in advance instead of Crisis Support.

You must be homeless, threatened with homelessness or have an essential need to move. Awards can only be made where the new rent is no more than 10% above your Local Housing Allowance rate (LHA).

The maximum award will be one months rent in advance. If your landlord wants you to pay more, you would have to pay the difference.

Help with deposits

Crisis Support does not pay for cash deposits. The Council operates a Deposit Bond Scheme instead. If you need help with a deposit as well as rent in advance you can let us know on the Crisis Support application and the Crisis Support Team will refer your case to the Bond Scheme Officer. Please see our Bond Scheme for further information.

Grants are not repayable

Loans available

Furniture & White Goods

Only essential items will be considered and to qualify you must be setting up home for the first time or you must have lost the items due to an emergency or crisis situation.

Removals & storage

Any move must be because there is a threat of homelessness, and we can only consider help with storage if there was a crisis situation which meant belongings could not be kept elsewhere.

Loans are interest free and can only be granted if you can show that you can afford to repay the money, usually within a year. If you do not repay the money you may not be able to get any further help from Crisis Support in the future and the repayments may be deducted from the benefits you receive.

Unforunately the application form is currently unavailable

Please ensure you supply us with a contact telephone number or an active email address.

When will I receive my payments?

The service is available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm excluding public holidays.

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If we receive a claim for daily living expenses in the dedicated postbox at the Town Hall, we will do our best to deal with it the same day. However, we are currently receiving very high numbers of applications and so there may be a slight delay. We will contact you with a decision or to request further information if necessary as soon as we have looked at your application. Please wait for us to contact you regarding your application.

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We aim to consider applications for anything else within seven days of receiving the claim or within seven days of receiving any supporting evidence we ask you for. Again due to the high number of applications we are currently experiencing there may be a slight delay. Please wait for us to contact you regarding your application, we will contact you either with a decision or to request further information as soon as your application has been looked at.