Sheffield City Council has raised emergency payments for residents facing severe financial hardship by £30 across all household sizes. Single-person households eligible for support from the authority's crisis and resilience fund will now receive a one-off payment of £95, compared with £65 previously. Two-person households can now apply for £110, while homes with three or four people are entitled to £120. Households with five or more members can receive £130, the council confirmed.
The fund can be used to help people purchase essentials including food, toiletries and utilities. The increase was implemented following a cost-of-living review conducted by Sheffield City Council's finance and performance policy committee. The review identified almost 50,000 households in Sheffield that were struggling to make ends meet and unable to pay their bills.
The council has already distributed significant support through the scheme. At least 7,000 crisis grants totalling nearly £600,000 have been awarded since April, the authority said. Announcing the change, councillor Elle Dodd, chair of the finance and performance policy committee, emphasised the scale of the challenge facing residents. She said life was "difficult and expensive" for "too many people" in Sheffield and stressed that "behind every statistic is someone making impossible decisions, feeling stressed and looking for a little breathing room."
Dodd added that the council was "determined to tackle the root causes of poverty, and to provide immediate support to those who need it," while keeping "tackling poverty and the cost of living firmly on the agenda." The move represents an attempt to provide relief to households as financial pressures continue to affect large sections of Sheffield's population.
For households in Sheffield struggling with living costs, the increase in crisis payments means more immediate financial support is available to help cover essential expenses when facing severe difficulty.