Home and Well

Home and well is a partnership project delivered by Citizens Advice Hampshire that provides wrap-around Citizens Advice support for patients being discharged from hospital. Its partners are:- West Hampshire CCG, Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks, Southern Water and Portsmouth Water. The service offers sign up to PSR, utilities advice and Citizens advice core service. More information can be found on our website here: Home and Well | citahants.org

For further information please contact: Elaine Allum Project Coordinator Phone: 07849 300685 - Email: eallum@citahants.org

U Benefit

Citizens Advice are working together in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to offer a solution to mitigate the COVID-19 Debt crisis.

U Benefit is aimed at clients who face debt and financial difficulties as a result of COVID-19. Each Local Citizens Advice Office will screen clients when clients approach our service. This will then trigger the extra support offered through U Benefit. Clients are also able to self refer here: UBenefit | citahants.org

This is a Hampshire-wide initiative with Citizens Advice Hampshire taking the lead, Portsmouth as the centre of excellence for debt advice in the county and Havant acting as the experts in financial capability via their “work out your money” scheme.

Surviving Winter

The aim of this fund is to ensure that older people who struggle with the cost of winter can survive the winter with a reasonable level of comfort and dignity. The client does not have to specify what they will spend the grant on, but the assessor needs to be sure that the overall effect will be that they can afford to keep warm and look after themselves during the coldest weather. As a rule of thumb the grant should be awarded for Food, Heat or Warm Clothes.

The applicant must be either well-known to the assessor through their work with the organisation, or they must provide evidence of their identity, preferably photo ID, and a recent utility bill, bank statement or other evidence to prove hardship. Applicants should normally only receive one payment in any twelve month period from this fund.

Note: Due to the large number of older eligible people who are not claiming Pension Credit, it would be beneficial to undertake a quick welfare benefit check as part of this application process. How much? The usual award should be up to a maximum of £100. However, in exceptional circumstances an award of up to a maximum of £125 may be made to those over 60 years of age.

Winter Grants scheme This scheme is funded via Hampshire County Council and central government. Fuel vouchers will be made available to partner organisations to distribute to those in most need. For more information please click here: Food and fuel vouchers | Children and Families | Hampshire County Council (hants.gov.uk)