Cost of Living Support Scheme

The Welsh Government scheme details are available here.

Below are some key points of the scheme.

The Scheme is made up of 2 elements; a main scheme (related to certain council tax payers) and a discretionary scheme. Each local authority in Wales decides its own discretionary scheme within Welsh Government (WG) guidelines; eligibility details will be publicised during May.

The main scheme provides for a £150 ‘Cost-of-Living’ payment under two conditions:

A: Council Tax Reduction Scheme entitlement condition

If the householder(s) was in receipt of support through the Council Tax Reduction Scheme on 15 February 2022, they are automatically assessed as being entitled to a payment of £150 regardless of the valuation band in which their property is placed (A to I).

B: Council Tax Band condition

Households occupying properties in council tax Bands A to D are assessed as being entitled to a payment of £150 provided they satisfy all of the following criteria:

• liable for council tax on a property on 15 February 2022
• not in receipt of an exemption for that property on 15 February 2022
• living in that property as their main or primary residence on 15 February 2022
• responsible for paying the associated utility and other regularly incurred bills for that property on 15 February 2022.

Households living in properties valued as Band E but which receive a disability band reduction to Band D are eligible under the main scheme.

The £150 is not a rebate on the council tax bill, it is a payment to help with the rising cost of all utility bills.

There will be ONE payment per eligible household.

If you are not eligible under the main scheme you may be eligible to receive a payment under the discretionary scheme.

Most council tax payers who are exempt from paying the tax (for example, a household made up entirely of qualifying students, care leavers up to the age of 25, or people with a severe mental impairment) will fall into the discretionary phase of the scheme.

The main scheme commenced in April but, as around 70,000 households within Caerphilly CBC may be eligible, payments will take several months to complete. The scheme in Wales will run for around 6 months to 30.09.2022.

If you pay your council tax by direct debit, we are able to make the payment direct to your bank account, without the need for you to register your details with us. We issued most of these payments during the last week of April, with some issued during May.

If you have recently set up a direct debit instruction to pay your council tax bill, we will collect your first council tax direct debit payment before we issue you with the £150 ‘Cost-of-Living’ payment. This is to ensure that the bank details we hold for you are correct and to minimise fraud and error.

For all other eligible council tax payers, the Welsh Government (WG) main scheme requires a registration process.

From the last week of May, over a period of around 8 weeks, we are sending 5,000 letters each week to households that we think may be eligible for support, inviting them to register their details using the online form below.

If you don’t have internet access, please call us on 01443 863230 and we can fill in the online form for you if you provide your details to us over the phone.

If you don’t have a bank account that will accept this payment, you can ask a trusted relative or friend to supply their bank account details and some of their personal information on the registration form so we can issue the payment to them and they can hand the money over to you when they receive it.

Before you register for the Cost of Living Support Payment

Before we can make a payment, you’ll need to register some details with us by completing the online form below. Some of the information we are asking for will help us reduce fraud and error when making these payments.

Before you register, make sure you have the following:

• your council tax account number (this is on the letter we are sending you; it will also be on your council tax bill)
• your bank account name
• your bank sort code and account number
• your email address
• a contact telephone number
• your date of birth
• your current address and post code

If you are asking a trusted relative or friend to supply their details on the registration form so we can issue the payment to them and they can hand the money over to you when they receive it, before you register, make sure you have the following:

• your council tax account number (this is on the letter we are sending you; it will also be on your council tax bill)
• their name and address
• their bank account name
• their bank sort code and account number
• their date of birth
• your email address
• your contact telephone number
• your current address and post code

Your payment

Once we have made a decision, we will email you to tell you if you’ve been successful. Due to the large number of registrations we expect to receive, payments will be made soon as possible before the scheme closes on 30.09.2022.

If your bank account is overdrawn you can make a request to your bank that the funds from the cost of living payment are used for particular bills you need to pay rather than being used to clear your overdraft. This is called your 'first right of appropriation'. A sample letter and advice on how to request this with your bank is available from the following link at National Debtline.  

Register your details for the Cost of Living Payment

Note: you do not need to register if you pay your Council Tax by direct debit.

Deadline for registrations: 5.00pm, Friday 30 September 2022

This link will direct you to Caerphilly Connect. Register now or log in to report, apply and pay for services. If you do not wish to create an account, click 'Continue without registering'. Please check your spam/junk mail folder for account activation and notification emails that we send you!

Please bear with us as we are expecting to issue many thousands of payments so we will be very busy trying to help many householders.

We urge residents to be mindful of emails, texts or telephone calls from suspicious sources offering information on the scheme, as this could be from someone who is trying to steal your personal information, such as your bank account details.