Festive opening hours

We will close for the public holidays on Tuesday 24 December 2024 at 2.30pm, and remain closed for the public holidays between Christmas and New Year. 

However, we will open on 27, 30, and 31 December 2024 between 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm. During these times, we will prioritise reviews of crisis grant applications. If you wish to request a review of a community care grant application, you can do so online. Alternatively, you can call us on 3 January 2025, and we will assist you over the phone.

Our normal service will resume on 3 January 2025 at 10am.

Case study

  • Date:
    April 2022
  • Category:
    Exceptional circumstances for crisis grants

Example

C requested an independent review of the council's decision on their crisis grant application. C applied for money for food after their income was taken up by a direct debit for car insurance.

The council declined the application on the basis that C had already received four awards in the last 12-month period which is one more than the usual maximum allowed. They said that they did not identify any exceptional circumstances that would allow for an additional award to be made.

We reviewed the council's file and spoke with C. We noted that C had never applied for this reason before therefore there were no similarities with previous applications. However, we considered that there was some fault on their part for not cancelling the direct debit, which was in relation to a car that they had sold a number of months previously. We did not change the council's decision but we provided them with feedback on their decision letters.

Updated: April 19, 2022