The leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council said local government “has a first aid box” when “we need A&E” on the cost of living crisis. Councillor Andrew Morgan was speaking as cabinet agreed extra support worth nearly £3m for families with school-age children, lower-paid council employees, and residents who are in extreme financial hardship in Rhondda Cynon Taf to help with the cost of living.
The council has laid out the measures it plans to introduce as part of a £2.89m extra local scheme. Cabinet approved the measures at a meeting Tuesday, September 6, which will see £1.65m will go towards payments to around 22,000 families with one child or more of compulsory school age.
A payment of £75 will be made per family rather than per child and families of a home-educated child or children will be eligible as will families of a child or children that attend a school outside of Rhondda Cynon Taf but live in the county borough. Compulsory school age will be as at the start of the school term beginning September 2022 and a child begins to be of compulsory school age the term following their fifth birthday.
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The report added that if a family has one or more children born between September 1, 2006, (age 16 as at August 31, 2023) and August 31, 2017, (age five as at August 31, 2022) and they live in RCT then they will be eligible for a family payment. The payment will not impact upon any benefits and if a family has previously received a £50 family payment and continue to have a child or children of compulsory school age then they will be automatically paid £75.
Families who have become eligible by virtue of having a child of compulsory school age from September 2022 will receive a letter with details of how to apply, the report said. Cllr Andrew Morgan explained that the reason for not including children who are not of school age is about how quickly and easily they can get the money out.
He said with school-aged children they can just use statutory records as evidence but with non-school-aged children they would have to look into things like health records and other documents, adding that it then becomes a minefield to verify them. He said it could take weeks to verify each individual child that way and, although he recognised some might be unhappy, he said they might be eligible for support under the hardship fund.
He said these are the same reasons that they are not means-testing the fund and added that they are currently the only council in Wales providing this. The proposal also includes £50,000 to support food banks and food support grants on top of that provided in the original discretionary scheme.
The council is also proposing £940,000 towards a one-off support payment for lower-paid council staff to supplement their salary. This would come to £125 per employee and would be made to 5,800 employees. It would include all employees who are remunerated at grades one to six such as litter pickers, refuse loaders, home care and social care workers, cooks, cleaners, school crossing patrols, and more.
The payment will be included in the October payroll and it will be will be classed as earnings so it will be subject to tax, National Insurance, and pension deductions. In the report it said: “Council staff continue to provide valued public services. Our lowest-paid employees however, are more likely to be suffering from the intense cost of living crisis.”
And the council is also proposing £250,000 towards a local cost of living hardship fund or those residents who are going through extreme financial hardship as a direct consequence of the cost of living crisis. Council officers will draw up a criteria for this fund and it is expected that it will be available from October. There will be £900,000 from the council’s allocation from the Welsh Government’s main and discretionary scheme going to fund this scheme with £1.99m coming from one-off council funding which has already been set aside.
The cabinet report highlighted that the Welsh Government have previously announced a package of measures to help people with support towards the cost of living. The package included the main scheme which saw £152m go towards providing a £150 cost-of-living payment to eligible households and £25m to provide discretionary support for other purposes related to living costs.
RCT decided its scheme and arrangements in March and has made more than 117,000 payments totalling £15.27m. The council is also set to deliver the Welsh Government’s Fuel Support Scheme during the autumn.
Cllr Morgan said: “While it is a relatively small amount to be paid to people it does go across thousands of households: 22,000 households, potentially, with children.” With the payments to lower-paid staff and the hardship money he said it’s close to 30,000 payments being made as well as 40,000 payments through the Welsh Government’s winter fuel support scheme so there’ll be around 70,000 payments being made in the next two months.
He said: “So it is going to be quite significant sums overall. I’m particularly pleased that it is focusing on children around the concern of child poverty.” On support for staff, he said they’ve met with trade unions on the impact on them and said it does help with some of the front-loaded costs.
He said they have to wait and see what further help is coming from UK Government in terms of a loan or a cap around energy bills. He said hopefully something will be done because “I think that between Welsh Government and local government we won’t be able to step in and help in the way that’s needed”.
He said he described it at a recent local event on the cost of living as: “Local government only has a first aid box to try and help people whereas actually right now we need A&E and A&E right now is actually Westminster so unless they do step in with significant sums there is going to be a lot of concern and a lot of people pushed into poverty. This is as much as we can do for now but it’s a start.”
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