Enfield Council will provide emergency financial support worth more than £2.8m to ensure some of the borough’s poorest residents can feed their families and heat their homes at Christmas. The £2.85 million Housing Support Grant, funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, will be spent on ensuring poorer families have access to food and warm clothing over the winter months and provide financial assistance to residents who are struggling to afford to heat their homes in the weeks to come. Money is made available to the Council to decide how it can best be spent to protect residents in individual boroughs. Enfield Council has decided to focus on ensuring the borough most vulnerable residents – many of who are children, do not go hungry over the coming months
Enfield Council Leader, Cllr Nesil Caliskan, said: “We are all only too aware that the day to day cost of living is increasing and many of our residents are struggling to make ends meet.
“This funding will go towards helping our poorest residents who find themselves in crisis at Christmas and beyond through no fault of their own. We are doing what we can to lift our communities out of poverty but more needs to be done at a national level to tackle the root causes of poverty but it is a disgrace that in 21st century Britain families are struggling to feed themselves and heat their homes.”The recipients of the grant are identified by their eligibility for benefits and other indicators to ensure the support goes to those most in need.