Our Crisis Payment scheme provides financial assistance to households experiencing financial hardship, an emergency, or an unexpected financial shock. Crisis Payments form part of the Crisis and Resilience Fund.
Crisis Payments are designed to support low-income households who:
- Are experiencing an emergency or immediate financial crisis
- Have suffered an unexpected financial shock
- Require support to prevent a crisis from escalating
- Have no reasonable alternative means of meeting an essential need
Examples may include:
- Disasters – Unforeseen and resulting in significant damage to possessions or property, such as serious fire, flood, explosion etc
- Accident, health emergency or mental health crisis – leading to unplanned spending
- Domestic Abuse – where immediate help is needed to move to alternative safe accommodation
- Breakage of an essential item – such as medical equipment, boiler, white goods
- Lost or Stolen Money – where emergency living expenses are needed
- Gap in Income – a short-term gap in income, for example, due to redundancy
Who can apply?
Crisis Payments are not limited to those in receipt of benefits but are instead intended to support a wide range of low-income households.
To apply for a Crisis Payment you must:
- Be aged 18 or over
- Live in Sandwell and be liable for council tax
- Be responsible for the household costs at your address
- Be experiencing financial hardship, crisis or exceptional circumstances
- Be able to demonstrate that financial support cannot reasonably be obtained from another source
- Be able to demonstrate that you are on a low income. That means that at least one of the following must apply:
- You have an annual income of £30,000 or less if you live alone or £40,000 or less if you live in a multi-person household
- You have savings of less than £1,000
- You are in receipt of a means-tested benefit such as:
- Universal Credit
- Pension Credit
- Housing Benefit
- Council Tax Reduction
- You can demonstrate that your household does not have sufficient funds to resolve the immediate crisis without going without essentials or incurring unmanageable debt
Once you apply, we'll look at your financial situation and why you need help. Not everyone who applies will receive a payment, but we do our best to support as many people as possible.
We will not usually make a payment if your benefits have been delayed or sanctioned unless there are exceptional reasons.
The maximum number of times you can claim financial help is three times in a 12-month period.
Furniture and white goods awards will normally be restricted to one furniture/white goods award within any rolling 12-month period.
What can I get help for?
We can help with:
- Food support – we can provide a payment voucher or a cash payment to help you to purchase food
- Essential living costs – we can provide a payment voucher to help with essential items such as clothing, uniform, shoes, hygiene products or digital essentials such as broadband and phone bills
- Gas and electricity – we can provide a PayPoint voucher for pre-pay meters only for up to three days of gas or electricity.
- Travel – we can provide a payment voucher for up to three days travel in the West Midlands area.
- Furniture and white goods – we can provide good quality furniture (second hand), mattresses and white goods such as fridges or cookers. If we arrange a delivery of furniture or white goods, please make sure you are available to accept the delivery.
- The provision of disability equipment i.e. wheelchair, where no other financial support is available.
Food Support During the School Summer Holidays
Households experiencing financial hardship during the school summer holidays may be able to apply for support with food costs through the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF).
All applications are assessed on an individual basis and are subject to the CRF eligibility criteria. As part of the application process, you will be required to complete:
- An Income and Expenditure Assessment to help us understand your household's financial circumstances.
- A Benefits Calculator to identify any benefits, discounts, grants or other financial support you may be entitled to but are not currently receiving.
When assessing your application, income received from the following disability-related benefits will be disregarded:
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
- Attendance Allowance (AA)
- Carer's Allowance
The purpose of the assessment is to ensure support is targeted to households most in need, while also helping residents maximise their income and improve their longer-term financial resilience.
Please note:
- Any food support award made under this provision will count as one of the maximum three awards available under the CRF Policy.
- All awards are discretionary and there is no automatic entitlement to support.
- A household must demonstrate that it does not have sufficient resources to manage the immediate crisis without incurring unmanageable debt or going without essential items such as food.
- Priority will be given to households experiencing financial hardship that impacts their ability to meet additional food costs during the school summer holiday period.
How to apply
You can use the form below to apply for help. You will need a MySandwell account to apply.
Apply for a Food Crisis Payment
For any other crisis assistance:
What happens next?
We'll look at your claim and we aim to make a payment or issue a voucher as soon as possible. This can take up to 14 days but is usually quicker. We will contact you by email or text once we've looked at your application.
If your application for a Crisis Payment is successful, you will be referred to our Welfare Rights team who may be able offer you financial advice, including benefits and debt advice, to help you to prevent a financial crisis from happening again.
Need more help?
If you need financial advice, or other help and support - use our Supporting Sandwell information hub.
More information about Crisis Payments
The council has a Crisis Payments Policy (downloads as a PDF) which will be reviewed every year.
