Coronavirus Winter Support Fund

The Fund is aimed at meeting immediate need amongst individuals and families who are struggling to afford food, utilities and other essentials over the winter months.

The aim is to give vulnerable households peace of mind over the winter months during the pandemic by helping those who need it to have food on the table and other essentials, so every child will be warm and well-fed this winter.  
Any supported projects or organisations must offer support to families or individiuals who are residents of Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames who have one or more of the following needs:

1. A family or individual has insufficient funds to access nutritional meals between December and March
2. A family or individual has insufficient funds to be able to keep their home warm, and meet the costs of other utilities – electricity, gas and water supply 
3. A family has insufficient funds to be able to afford non-food essentials such as personal hygiene products, warm clothing, soap, blankets, boiler service/repair, access to equipment including fridges, freezers, ovens, etc.

Organisations who have previously applied for grant funding would be eligible to apply again as long as funding supports wholly additional activity and meets the scheme criteria required by the Government guidelines. 
 
The main funding criteria is:

1. The funding must be spent between 1st December and 31st March 2021 
2. The funding must be used to directly support families through voucher programmes, food parcels, winter essential parcels, cash grants.  The funding cannot be used for non-direct support (e.g. advice, transport etc).
3. A minimum of 80% of the funding must be spent on families with children
4. A minimum of 80% of the funding must be spent on food support and support with household utilities (gas, electric, water).  Up to 20% can be spent on other winter essentials e.g. warm clothes, boiler repairs, personal hygiene products etc.
5. The successful organisations will be required to submit a monthly summary of how much has been spent and how many households have benefitted

Applicants will need to demonstrate that they have the ability to assess need and eligibility and are committed to targeting funding where the need is greatest.

Successful applicants will also need to demonstrate that they have mechanisms in place to distribute assistance to Kingston residents, including effective referral processes, and proven partnerships with key stakeholders such as social work teams and homelessness support services. 

In order to manage the risk of fraud, successful applicants will need to demonstrate that they have robust mechanisms to ensure individuals are in genuine need of assistance and that payments or vouchers are spent appropriately.  

Individuals may be receiving other forms of support, including Universal Credit. If families are receiving support through other food/utility schemes this should be taken into account, and you should avoid duplicating provision.  However, families receiving support through other schemes are not excluded from receiving support through the grant. For example, a family may:  

• have additional wider needs in terms of food and utilities 
• require other essential winter supplies  
• include individual family members that are not in receipt of support 

Eligible organisations

We will only fund organisations that:

• Provide services or activities that benefit the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and its residents
• Have a regional or national remit, but we will only fund services or activities that benefit the Kingston borough
• Operate as not for profit, including social enterprises and Charitable Interest Companies. Successful applicants will need to evidence that all of the grant has been used as direct expenditure and return any surplus to the Council as unspent grant funding
• Have a formal constitution, governing document or set of rules that is signed and dated and defines how the organisation will operate.
• Can prove they are financially solvent - without liabilities that are more than their current assets.  
• Have a bank account in the name of the organisation with at least two signatories / or written authorisation from another organisation who will manage the funds on their behalf.  
  If you do not have a bank account (e.g. mutual aid group), you will need to find a partner organisation who can hold the funds on your behalf.

We will not fund:

• Churches or other organisations where the monies will be used for religious purposes
• Projects where the monies will be used for political purposes
• Applications which are fundraising in nature
• Retrospective funding

Application

We are no longer accepting applications.