The number of people that applied for a hardship scheme in Derry outweighed the amount of money that was available, Derry City and Strabane District Council has confirmed.
The local council's £100 Emergency Fuel Support Programme opened for referrals on Tuesday, December 6 at 9.30am, with several thousand people trying to apply for the scheme despite only 2,405 applications being available on a first-come basis.
It's understood that the council website crashed on Tuesday morning while people were trying to apply due to the volume of people trying gain access.
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In a statement to MyDerry, Derry City and Strabane District Council said: " At this stage, we can only indicate that several thousand referrals were received.
"We are currently reviewing all the paperwork to identify the number of unique referrals and assign them into their respective District Electoral Area. The eligibility checks will be undertaken over the coming days.
"The number of referrals received is in excess of the number required for our overall total and now Council are assigning the referrals to their respective DEA."
Meanwhile, SDLP MLA for Foyle, Mark H Durkan said Tuesday's activity proved there is a "huge need" for supports scheme, branding the DUP's "siege of Stormont" as "a disgrace".
He added: "Derry City and Strabane District Council's Emergency Energy Support Fund closed yesterday afternoon just hours after it opened.
“Yet Northern Ireland is the only jurisdiction who has not received an energy payment. People were promised £400 in November, they had been relying on that support, holding out for titbits of information. Only to be told that this payment won't arrive before Christmas and will likely not be issued until the new year with no clarity given on dates. That is a disgrace.
“The Assembly has been recalled today for the fifth time- it won't fix the huge problems overnight but it will get help to households who should have received financial support long before now. Our communities have suffered an overlap in crises and for the most part have been left open and vulnerable to those crises.
"The DUP's continued siege of Stormont is nothing short of wilful negligence- lives are at stake. Their arrogance in the face of such desperation is astounding.
"The cost of living crisis, the crisis within our health service, the significant rise in serious mental health issues- it does not discriminate. Nationalists, Unionists, other; everyone is struggling at this time and they are relying on delivery from the representatives they elected to work with their best interests at heart.
“Collapsing our institutions and penalising the most vulnerable in the process can never be justified. It's high time the DUP put people before political posturing. Their imperviousness in the face of the dire situation facing people across the North is cruel.”
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