The Cost of Living Fund ended on Friday 24th March 2023
Message from Southwark Council
Dear Referrers,
The community referral pathway for this winter closed as planned on Friday 24th March.
The online form for residents to apply directly to the Cost of Living Fund will close at the same time – but low-income residents facing a crisis will still be able to apply to the Southwark Emergency Support Scheme (SESS).
Information about other support available for residents can be found on the Cost of Living Support section of the Council’s website.
Referrals or applications made by Friday 24th March will be processed before this winter’s Cost of Living Fund closes on 31st March.
We will still send partners confirmation of the outcome of the referrals they have made and will continue to deal with any queries from residents who have been referred.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to all our referral partners for their participation and dedication. Even before this winter’s fund closes, almost 16,500 referrals have been received from dozens of community partners, with more than eighty percent of those referred receiving support in what has been a truly remarkable effort.
If residents approach you about the outcome of a referral please urge them to contact the Council. The vast majority of those referred get support and redeem their voucher without difficulty or delay. However, due to the sheer volumes of referrals and vouchers issued, we are dealing with a lot of enquiries from residents and are working through these as quickly as we can.
We will work with partners and residents this spring and summer to evaluate our collective experience of the pathway this winter. The Council is already committed to creating a new pathway next year (2023/24) to support low-income residents during a cost-of-living crisis that sadly still has no end in sight.
We’ll be in touch soon with more information.
Kind regards,
Community Referral Team
Southwark Council
Exchequer Services
160 Tooley Street
1st Floor, Hub 2,
London SE1 2QH
