Residents in Medway who are facing ongoing financial challenges are being reminded of the support and help on offer.
Last night, Tuesday, 29 July, Cabinet agreed our refreshed Cost of Living Crisis Response Plan, which outlines how the council will continue to support its most vulnerable residents.
The plan brings together a wide range of support that is on offer both directly from the council, as well as its partners, in one place. It focuses on four objectives, which are responding to urgent need; maximising cost and optimising financial support; maximising incomes and supporting health and wellbeing; and building financial resilience and managing debt.
When agreeing the renewed plan, Cabinet also agreed to continue to use the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT). This tool is used to identify households which could be eligible for support, like council tax reduction or free school meals, but are not currently receiving it. Last year, LIFT was used to identify more than 1,500 pensioner households in Medway who just missed out on Pension Credit and the Winter Fuel Payment – ensuring they could claim £200 from the Household Support Fund.
The Household Support Fund (HSF) is open to all Medway residents and provides a wide range of support. As well as providing free school meal vouchers through the school summer holidays, residents can apply for vouchers to help cover the cost of essentials including food, energy, school uniforms and more.
Since launching, the HSF has provided more than £15.5million both directly supporting residents as well as through partner initiatives. The HSF will continue to run until March 2026. The government recently announced as part of the spending review, that a new Crisis and Resilience Fund will be launching next year ensuring much-needed support will remain in place.
The council is also progressing with its plans to invest £42million to help tackle the costs of temporary accommodation to help provide vulnerable households in Medway with stability. As well as purchasing properties, part of this investment was used to create the council-run lettings service – One Medway Lettings – allowing private landlords to be matched to council tenants.
One Medway Lettings will help households move on from temporary accommodation to safe, affordable and settled accommodation, and will also prevent the need for some households to access temporary accommodation in the first place. One Medway Lettings will also support landlords in Medway by fully managing their property for up to five years, as well as offering a rent guarantee.
We also increased our council tax reduction scheme income bands in line with inflation once again – ensuring those most in need of support get it. This change will provide an estimated £15million in additional support for Medway residents this year alone. We also continue to discount all military compensation when working out benefit eligibility for veterans.
The Medway Food Partnership, which brings together almost 30 charities, will continue to tackle food insecurity in Medway. Recently awarded the Sustainable Food Places Bronze Award, last year the partnership helped an estimated 25,000 residents with food parcels and hot meals each month.
We will also be continuing to provide free family and sporting activities throughout the summer through our Child-Friendly Medway and Sport teams, including Super Saturday, drop-in football sessions, street cricket, family workouts, yoga, tennis sessions and more. Families will also be able to enjoy the new free Splash Pad at The Strand Lido, which is open seven days a week in the school summer holidays.
MedwayGo, the council’s free government-funded holiday activity and food programme, is also running this summer. MedwayGo provides free activities, and a healthy meal, for children on benefit-related free school meals during schools holidays. Some activities can also be booked for a fee, and there some free spaces for looked after children, children from military families or children with SEND needs.
The council will also be continuing to provide free training to its staff through the Money and Pensions Service Money Guiders programme, which aims to give staff the skills and knowledge to be able to provide money guidance to residents. With more than 130 registered money guiders, last year we were awarded the Money Guiders Partner of the Year award – and this training will continue to form a key part of the Cost of Living Response Plan.
As well as the response plan, we have pulled together a range of information on the support available to people on its website. This includes pension credit, benefits, energy and utilities support and much more. See the full range of support available on our Help for Households page.
Cllr Vince Maple, Leader of Medway Council, said: “It is an unfortunate fact that the cost of living crisis is continuing to impact people, but we are committed to doing everything we can to support our residents. When we originally launched this plan two years ago, the idea was to make it as easy as possible for people to see what help is out there, both directly from us as well as our partners. We have refreshed this plan every year since it launched to ensure people have access to up-to-date information, and we will continue to do our bit to ensure people can access the help they need.
“Some people have never reached out for help before, either because they haven’t had to or because it can be an uncomfortable thing to do. However, if you are struggling, please do see what support there is out there – these are incredibly challenging times for a lot of people and asking for a bit of help is perfectly ok.
“I would urge anybody reading this to take a look at the full plan as there is so much in there – even if you are in a fortunate enough position to not need it yourself, you may be able to help point your family, friends or colleagues in the right direction and help spread the word.”
As part of the recommendations agreed at the Cabinet meeting, councillors also agreed that Cllr Maple would write to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, to support the Trussell Trust’s Guarantee Our Essentials campaign.
Cllr Maple added: “We are proud to support this Trussell Trust campaign, which asks that the basic rate of Universal Credit is enough to cover the day-to-day essentials people need to survive – food, household bills and travel. This campaign aligns with our ambitions for the Cost of Living Crisis Response Plan, focusing on supporting people through what has been an incredibly hard time.”
You can read the full Cost of Living Crisis Response Plan here, and find out more about the support available on our website.