A total £300,000 is to be made available across Liverpool for community organisations to help people who are struggling to make ends meet.

Each of the 30 wards in the city will be allocated £10,000 from The Mayoral Hardship Fund which has been established in response to growing pressures on low income households.

Ward councillors are recommending small grants to community and local voluntary organisations that help residents with basic needs to keep their heads above water.

The funding, which is new money set aside in the council’s budget, is in addition to Discretionary Housing Payments and the Liverpool Citizen Support Scheme

Mayor Anderson says: “The government’s welfare reforms have hit the most vulnerable in our city hard and it is absolutely perverse that we as one part of the public sector are having to pick up the pieces caused by cuts in another part of the public sector when we have already faced a 64% reduction in our budget.

“But we cannot and will not just sit by and watch as some of our most vulnerable families are left struggling and worrying how they will pay for essentials such as food and clothing.”

Councillors will be able to make applications to provide support to community organisations who help those facing hardship in their local areas when the scheme launches later this summer.

The remainder of the fund will go to a separate pot administered through the Liverpool Citizens Support Scheme for individuals whose applications fall slightly outside the usual criteria for an award.

Related posts:

LFC’s potential victory parade route revealed Call for singers of all abilities to join new Liverpool choir Communal ‘avenues’ revealed in new look at Welsh Streets project Council set to invest £200m in Liverpool’s road network Plans revealed for third and final return of the Giants in Liverpool Council to challenge government’s Landlord Licensing rejection