Cost of living support in Suffolk

• Find where the nearest food banks are (Please note that some foodbanks only take referrals) 
• Find a Pop Up or Top Up shop in Suffolk
• Healthy Start provides vouchers for pregnant women and families with a child under four years old on a low income to buy basic food items. Call: 0345 607 6823 
• BBC £1 Meals
• Henry - Healthy meal recipes for families with children under 5.
• Advice on how to cut down on your food waste from foodsavvy.org.uk
• Love Food Hate Waste is another website giving advice on how to cut down on your food waste
• olioex.com - Find anything from local businesses which is nearing its sell-by date, spare home-grown vegetables, breads from your local baker or even groceries from your neighbours
• Too Good To Go app - Make sure good food gets eaten, not wasted. Every day, delicious, fresh food goes to waste at cafes, restaurants, hotels, shops and manufacturers - just because it hasn’t sold in time. The Too Good To Go app lets customers buy and collect Magic Bags of this food - at a great price - directly from businesses
• Kitche is a free smart kitchen app that is designed to help you do just that with helpful reminders and recipe ideas based on what you’ve already got, so you’ll never be stuck for meal ideas

• The Government website has information on help that you could be entitled to which will help with energy bill payment 
• The Warm Homes Suffolk programme helps Suffolk residents to make it cheaper to heat their homes through various energy efficiency measures
• Electric Heater replacement scheme - homeowners and private tenants (with their Landlord's permission) can apply for a Government grant to have old, uneconomical room heaters replaced with electric storage heaters free of charge
• British Gas Energy Trust
• Energy Saving Trust - tips to save money on your energy bills
• Support for EDF customers
• Some additional Energy saving tips - Lowering your combi boiler’s flow temperature could save up to 8% of your gas use and turning off your boiler’s preheat setting could save another 5-10%. Check which of these energy saving tips provided by Octopus Energy and Money Saving Expert (Martin Lewis) could help you reduce your bills.

Housing Association Tenant?

• Information on the £400 winter energy discount
• Support for those not currently protected by the energy price cap (eg on communcal heating system)

Oil

• Do you use Oil for your heating? Over 46,000 households in Suffolk do.  You may benefit from Community Action Suffolk's community oil buying scheme.  They offer pre-payment and direct debit schemes.  Please note, they do not offer a ‘buy now, pay later’ scheme. For more information visit https://www.communityactionsuffolk.org.uk/oilbuying
• Oil buying clubs in Suffolk could help reduce the amount you pay as group buying yields better deals.  Search for your nearest at www.oil-club.co.uk/search/

Other utilities and household bills:

• Water: Anglian Water  offers tariffs for low-income households that can offer up to 50% discount on water and sewage usage 
• Phone & Broadband: Find social tariffs for your phone and broadband with Ofcom's table of providers offering discounts. Social tariffs are cheaper broadband and phone packages for people claiming Universal Credit, Pension Credit and some other benefits 
• Free Mobile Data: The National Databank is providing free mobile data to 500,000 people in need via Good Things Foundation’s network of community partners, in partnership with Virgin Media O2, Vodafone and Three: www.goodthingsfoundation.org/databank/   

There is help available to support you:

• Turn2Us - Advice and support to help maximise your income and manage your Budget
• Credit Unions - These can help you with affordable loans
• Citizens Advice  - For free and impartial advice on all aspects to support you through difficulty

Benefits

• Are you claiming all the allowances due to you?

• • If you are a carer, you may be entitled to Carer’s Allowance and/or an extra amount called the ‘carer element’ within Universal Credit.  This could mean £69.70 a week in Carer's Allowance if you care for someone at least 35 hours a week and you, the person you care for and the type of care you provide meets the criteria
  •  Personal Independence Payment (PIP) (for adults under state retirement age), Attendance Allowance (for those over state retirement age), and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) (for children under 16, for new claims) are not means-tested. The assessment considers the way that your health conditions affect your daily living and mobility needs.
  • Benefits and money advice 
  • Turn2Us - Advice and support to help maximise your income and manage your Budget
  • Credit Unions - These can help you with affordable loans
  • Organisations and services offering advice on money matters
  • Organisations who can support you if you are in poverty
  • National Debt Line - or call 0808 808 4000. Webchat function is also available on their website
  • If you have concerns about your money situation, your bank will be able to offer advice and support. Do reach out to them to understand what is available to you as a customer.

Benefits are paid by the central government, not your local council.

You can read more about how benefits work on GOV.UK.

If you're not sure if you'd be able to claim benefits, you can use a benefits calculator to find out.

Benefits advice

There are lots of organisations and services who can support you with benefits advice, including:

• Citizens Advice
• DAS - Disability Advice Service, East Suffolk
• DANES - Disability Advice North East Suffolk

You can also find other finanial advice services 

They can help you with advice about:

• your legal rights
• managing your money
• how to deal with financial problems

Grants

A grant is an amount of money that a government or local authority gives to an individual or an organisation for a particular purpose, such as support with housing costs.

If you are struggling financially, there are grants available which you may be eligible to apply for which can help lessen the burden.  The following support is administered by Suffolk County Council:

Household Support Fund

You can visit our Household Support Fund page to find more information. 

The Local Welfare Assistance Scheme

The Local Welfare Assistance Scheme (LWAS) is administered by Suffolk County Council and helps those experiencing financial hardship. There are lots of reasons why you may be in hardship and if you are eligible, LWAS can provide financial help.

The scheme is not intended as emergency support and only one application can be made per household. LWAS is not intended as long-term support. The quickest way to make an application is via the webform, using your smartphone, tablet or computer. If you have all the information required to make an application the webform will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

To make an application and find out whether you are eligible for support, please visit the Local Welfare Assistance Scheme webpage.

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• Help with Health Costs: if you have a low income, the NHS Low Income Scheme could help pay for:

• NHS prescription charges
• NHS dental treatment charges
• the cost of sight tests, glasses and contact lenses
• the cost of travelling to receive NHS treatment
• NHS wigs and fabric supports

Check to see if you are eligible: NHS Low Income Scheme

• Help with funeral costs: This can be an expensive time, and can be unexpected and not planned for, bringing financial worry for those remaining.  Bereavement might also affect the benefits of those left in the household. For information and support see; https://www.gov.uk/when-someone-dies

• Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert is the UK's biggest consumer website, with more than 16 million users a month. The site's dedicated to cutting your bills and fighting your corner with journalistic research, cutting-edge tools and a massive community – all focused on finding deals, saving cash and campaigning for financial justice.