Written by Mr. Kunal Sawhney, CEO, Kalkine Media
With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, the world has experienced rumbling losses in terms of health, earnings, livelihood, connectivity and the ability to roam around freely. The pandemic restrictions, alongside massive lay-offs, pay cuts, increased spending on health and social care, surging utility bills amid huge rise in the energy prices and beaten-down rate of recovery has furthered the misery for many households, as well as people living far from their native places and hometowns.
The government of the United Kingdom has taken multiple measures to safeguard the interest of vulnerable people and communities during the pandemic, especially for the people who were left with no regular source of income.
The multi-month long furlough scheme has categorically supported the earnings for individuals, effectively assisting the businesses to maintain and retain the staff. The scheme primarily helped in ameliorating the rate of unemployment and the activity in the employment landscape. With the termination of the furlough scheme, the industries have been partly hit as they are now in position to cover up all the charges categorised as the employee benefit expenses.
Furthermore, the worries of people living on rent have slightly increased as they are no longer a part of the government-backed job support scheme, the programme that has comprehensively benefitted the households, minimising the job uncertainty at the same time.
The Downing Street administration has recently announced a multi-million support package, especially designed to cover the vulnerable renters still struggling due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
As a part of the broader objective of diminishing the challenges for renters, a sum equalling £65 million has been set aside to provide support to low-income households. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have been managing the fund, supervising the grants to vulnerable households that are grappling with the increased household expenses, while they service house rentals.
The multi-million funding has supplemented the £500 million monetary assistance announced by the government of the UK to help the vulnerable families with the essential products and services during the winter period.
The regional councils in England will be empowered through the funding to support the low-income households and people with truncated earnings to cover up the rent arrears, productively supporting the families while they bounce back to the pre-Covid levels and helping the nation to prevent the condition of homelessness.
The renters across the nation have been thoroughly protected by the support package to the tune of £400 billion during the heightened Covid activity. The government has time and again intervened to extend monetary support to the vulnerable section of the country.
The ban on evictions during the pandemic has been highly appreciated and a welcomed measure by the government, alongside this, other support measures has helped in ensuring that no one should suffer due to missed rent payments. As a result of comprehensive planning by the authorities, a maximum section of the households are up to date with the respective rent obligations.
Under the £65 million fund, the grants will be made available to the financially weaker section of the society, the vulnerable individuals staying on a rented accommodation and the people fearing the risk of eviction through the winter months. The households and persons worrying about the possibility of homelessness have been advised to contact their local councils for the proportionate support.
The low-income earners and the financially weaker households have been encountering unending troubles due to the severe repercussions of pandemic on health and wealth. As a consequence of continuing distress for the people, the multi-million funding facilitated by the government will help the vulnerable families look to fulfilling their near-term objectives of travel and shopping during the upcoming period of Christmas, while they continue to service the rental obligations.
The fallout of pandemic on the private rented sector with the lowest income and uncertain sources of income have immensely disturbed the financial position and spending capacity.
The announcement of such a package to support the weakest households with the monthly rental payments will benefit many. With the help of this package the government is intending to improve the financial prospects for low-income earners as it becomes really difficult to service the rent and manage other periodic expenses that increase with the commencement of winter season.
So far in 2021 itself, the government has already sanctioned a sum totalling £310 million to councils through the Homelessness Prevention Grant. The recent addition for averting the homelessness in winter season will increase the total amount by a further £65 million in the present calendar year.
Separately, the government has made available £140 million through the Discretionary Housing Payments. The sum has been judiciously utilised to prevent evictions, at a time when people lookout for new rental accommodation. This implies the comprehensive working model for the Downing Street administration as it subsidised the stamp duty for home buyers during the pandemic, and, on the other hand, the authorities made sure that people living in rental properties should remain in a position to fulfill their rental needs.
Under the umbrella of the £500 million Household Support Fund, the government has provided £421 million to assist the vulnerable individuals in England. As a part of this monetary injection, the devolved administrations were entitled to receive nearly £80 million.
During all of this, the landlords and the primary owners of the property have also proceeded hand-in-hand with the government’s objective to minimise the evictions and homelessness due to the hardships of the pandemic.
The multiple fundings are primarily utilised to support the households needs including the cost of essentials and other necessary requirements. Of the total monetary grant, nearly 50% of the funding has been reserved for the households and families with children.
As the country steps into the final stages of the apparent recovery process, the government has been doing the major bit to resurrect the confidence, identifying the best possible measures to support the vulnerable section. The additional fundings and specific monetary injections have thoroughly augmented and bolstered the existing lines of support being channelised through the government.