Swansea Labour election pledge to ease cost of living extended to more homes
Swansea Labour is delivering on its pledge to help to ease the Tory cost of living crisis affecting thousands of families across the city. Some 78% of eligible homes in Swansea will have had a payment by the end of this week - that’s over 70,000 properties who will have had help in just a few weeks of the launch of the scheme , more than any other area of Wales.
Tens of thousands of households have started receiving the £28 extra local payment in response to rising costs as the Swansea Labour run council try to right some of the wrongs that have been dumped on hard-up families by the Tories nationally, due to out-of-control inflation, energy bills and National Insurance tax hikes.
Part of a package of support measures in response to soaring bills the payment will be made to all council tax band A and B householders on top of the £150 that they - and band C and D householders - are getting as part of a nationwide scheme.
With May 5th’s local elections only days away Swansea Labour is already delivering on a whole raft of manifesto pledges which include: better schools, better car, stronger economy and better homes.
Labour is telling the people of Swansea ‘if you value it, vote for it’. And unlike any of the opposition Labour is delivering action not words.
And that is proved by the decision to award the extra £28 was made by Swansea Council's cabinet in line with Welsh Government’s discretionary support measures.
Swansea Labour leader Rob Stewart said the £28 top-up for band A and B properties covered 80% of households in Swansea.
“It is with a big thank you to finance officers for their efforts in getting the £150 rebate into 45,000 householders' bank accounts already. That leaves about 35,000 householders who must complete a registration form before receiving the payment,” he said.
"I was very pleased that we were able to provide this help at the earliest possible moment as we know the energy price cap went up significantly on April 1."
Fellow cabinet member Andrea Lewis said: "It is a concern that households are going to fall into significant financial difficulty, but this council is doing everything it can to support them," she said.
Energy bills have soared in recent months, and millions of people have had to switch companies because their providers went bust. The energy price cap increased by an average of £693 for more than 20 million UK householders on April 1, taking the average annual gas and electricity bill to £1,971. It's a rise of 54%.
The discretionary measures decided by cabinet at a meeting on April 21 are:
- £28 for people in band A and B properties.
- £150 for the following categories receiving council tax exemptions: care leavers, people with a severe mental impairment, occupants of certain self-contained annexes, residents under 18 years old, care home residents, people resident elsewhere as they are receiving care, people resident elsewhere as they are providing care, and students studying elsewhere.
- £150 for the following categories: households occupying band F to I properties for which a disability adaptation reduction has been granted, council housing tenants not in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit, any household the council can identify as being eligible for the £150 nationwide rebate and which is required to register for it but has not done two weeks before the scheme closes.
- £52,500 to be put in a support fund to be used to help people having difficulty meeting fuel costs.
The national rebate and the new discretionary measures will cost £14,155,208 in Swansea, with around £12 million of that swallowed up by the main £150 rebate.
