Hardship Fund (2024)

This scheme is designed to helppeople in debt with householdbills including:

gas, electricity and water
rent and Council Tax arrears

This scheme is discretionary with limited funding available, so awards are limited to one per household.

To be considered for help you must be:

livingin Southwark for at least3 months
affected financially by one or more of the welfare reform changes effective since 1 April 2013
16 years of age or older, and
receiving one or more of these disability related benefits:
- Disability Living Allowance Care Component
- Disability Living Allowance Mobility component
- Personal Independence Payment- Daily Living Component
- Personal Independence Payment- Mobility Component
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Support element of Employment Support Allowance
- Universal Credit (limited capability for work related activity)

You can submit your application at any time but we’ll only assess it during office hours - 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. We’ll make a decision on whether to award your application based on your eligibility, and your reasons for applying.

We’ll let you know our decision by email or post. If you’re successful, we’ll let you know how your award will be made and what to do next.

Apply for help from the Hardship Fund

Learn more about how we use your data - read our privacy notice

The Hardship Fund is a discretionary scheme with limited funding so we can only help those with the greatest need.

We may ask you for evidence to support your claim.If you can’t provide this, we may refuse your claim.

We’ll refer you to other local support and advice services if we think it'llhelpyou. In some cases, we may refer you to these services rather than make an award from the Hardship Fund.