Nine ways to claim FREE cash including hardship grants and unclaimed benefits

HOUSEHOLDS’ budgets are being stretched to the max right now – but there’s plenty of help you can get to claim FREE cash.

Energy bills rocketed in price today, taking the average bill to £1,971 a year, plus there’s more to pay for council tax and water bills from this month.

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Even mobile phone and broadband bills have seen a hike today, and tax payers will have to pay more more in National Insurance too.

That’s coupled with rising costs for your weekly shop at the supermarket and when it comes to filling up your car with fuel too.

But you don’t have to keep forking out for all the rocketing costs alone.

There’s FREE cash that you can claim in the form of grants, rebates, missing funds and more – and it could help you get your finances back on track.

Here’s everything you could claim:

Household Support Fund

When Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his Spring Statement last month, he revealed that the existing £500million Household Support Fund would double to £1billion.

So far households across the country have been able to claim supermarket vouchers, free cash, money to put toward their energy bills and more.

The chance to apply for funding from the scheme via your council ended on March 31, but with the funding shake-up on the way, more families will be able to cash-in on the help.

You’ll have to wait until your local council reveals details and apply directly with them for help – and you might have to meet their eligibility criteria in order to claim too.

Each council will have a different application process – so exact details on how to apply will vary depending on where you live.

And some local authorities give the help automatically, while in other areas you’ll need to apply.

Council tax rebate

Thousands of homes can expect to receive a rebate of £150 on their council tax bill from today.

The money is part of a £9.1billion package of support from the government to help with the rising costs of bills.

Your home has to be in council tax bands A to D to be eligible though – check which band you’re in using the government’s website.

If you pay your council tax by Direct Debit, you’ll receive the cash automatically.

If you don’t, you may have to wait longer to get it.

But the good news is that the money will not have to be paid back.

And if you’re not in those council tax bands, you could still get help through the Government’s £144million discretionary fund.

Grants and hardship funds

You can get a grant from your energy supplier if you’re really struggling and need help paying off debts.

Scottish Power, for example, will wipe up to 40% off eligible customers’ debts up to a maximum of £750 per household.

Its hardship fund has no deadline and you can make a claim every three years.

While Octopus customers can get cash grants of between £50 and £500.

There is no specific eligibility criteria, but most customers who get help are in arrears on their bill. You can apply on the Octopus website by filling out its financial support form.

And just this week British Gas announced it was topping up its own fund by handing out an extra £2million to help customers with their bills.

In it customers can get from £250 to £750.

To be eligible, you must have less than £1,000 in savings and outstanding debt of between £250 and £750 on an open gas or electricity or duel fuel account.

You can apply online if that’s the case and you’re a British Gas customer.

Meanwhile, the E.on Next Energy Fund can help customers through grants or by replacing an appliance such as a cooker, fridge or washing machine

Winter fuel help

Winter Fuel Payment

One-off winter fuel payments from the government of between £100 and £300 are given to pensioners.

To qualify for the payout, you’ll need to have been born on or before September 26, 1955.

You must also have lived in the UK for at least one day during the “qualifying week”. For the payments this winter, it fell between September 20 and 26, 2021.

The money is tax-free and won’t affect any other benefits that you get, such as Universal Credit, but how much you get depends on your circumstances, like if you live alone or you get certain benefits.

It applies to all households with at least one member above state pension age, with £200 for those under 80, and £300 to those over 80.

And the payments are usually made automatically, usually between November and December.

Warm Home Discount

The Warm Home Discount Scheme is another one-off payment that goes towards your heating costs.

It’s designed to bring down the costs of your bills with a direct amount that comes straight off your total.

That means you might not necessarily see the money as cold hard cash, but you will feel the benefit with a reduced energy bill in the harshest months.

It’s usually paid straight to your energy supplier who then apply the discount to your bills.

But if you have a pre-payment meter, you’ll be sent a voucher that you can use to top up your account.

The government also announced it would be expanding the Warm Home Discount scheme so more low income households will benefit.

It means there’s an extra tenner on offer in support, up from the £140 that has been offered in years past.

Households can claim £150 under the revised scheme but that doesn’t come into play until October.

Three million households could be able to claim, but they must be in receipt of Pension Credit, Guarantee Credit, or some working age benefits to be eligible.

Cold weather payment

The cold weather payment is dished out when temperatures are recorded as zero degrees or below for seven consecutive days.

It’s applicable when temperatures drop between November 1 and March 31.

You get £25 for each seven-day period where the weather is below zero Celsius on average during this time frame.

You can check if your area has had a cold weather payment by popping your postcode into the government’s tool from November 1 onward.

Tax-free childcare

Parents can get up to £2,000 free childcare help including kids clubs over the Easter holidays that are right around the corner.

Around 1.3million eligible households are missing out on the support with childcare costs.

All working parents with children who are 11 or under can apply for the Government’s tax-free scheme.

It goes up to maximum of £4,000 if your child is disabled too.

The scheme essentially works like a savings account where for every £8 you save towards childcare costs, the government tops up an extra £2.

So if you put away £8,000 a year for one child, the government will give you £2,000 totally free.

You can usually get tax-free childcare if you, and your partner if you have one, are:

• in work
• on sick leave or annual leave
• on shared parental, maternity, paternity or adoption leave

If you’re not currently working but your partner is, you may still be eligible.

You will have to also be claiming one of the following benefits:

• Incapacity Benefit
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance.

Child trust funds

Millions of parents could be missing out on thousands stashed away in a Child Trust Fund in their child’s name.

Children born between  September 1, 2002 and August 2, 2010, were given a government bonus of £250 each through the tax-free scheme when they were born.

Then they got another £250 when the child reached the age of seven.

While children born between August 3, 2010 and January 2, 2011 got £50.

Lower income families would receive double the amount – adding to up to £1,000 in savings.

But the scheme was scrapped to encourage Junior ISA’s instead, so many parents may have forgotten the funds are sitting waiting to be claimed.

If you don’t know if your child has one, use the government’s free online tool.

Healthy Start Vouchers

Healthy start vouchers can help you cover the cost of fresh food and drink for your kids.

If you’re on a low income, the scheme could be worth as much as £442 a year.

Each healthy start voucher is currently worth £4.25 a week, and over a year that adds up to £221.

It’s worth double that if you have a child under the age of one as you’ll be eligible for two vouchers each week, which makes up the £442 maximum.

There used to be paper vouchers, but that has just been replaced by a prepaid card, so you’ll get the amounts added to that instead automatically every four weeks.

Unclaimed benefits

More than £15billion goes unclaimed from the Treasury in missing benefits each year, according to Which?.

If you have a low household income, you may be able to claim things like Universal Credit.

There’s also a 25% council tax discount you might be missing out on, and other tax credits like child tax credit and working tax credit.

You can use tools like online benefits calculators from charities such as Turn2Us to check whether you’re eligible for benefits, and which ones, and start claiming the cash help.

Lost pension pots

Millions of people are now enrolled in a pension automatically through their work.

Each time you start a new job you start a new pension, which can leave many Brits with several pots of cash that they might easily forget about.

Your employer should be able to tell you where your pension money is if you have been auto-enrolled onto a scheme.

The Association of British Insurers estimates that there are around 1.6million missing pension pots, with an average size of £13,000.

Pensions providers are also supposed to send annual statements to scheme members so check old paperwork or emails.

If you still can’t find your lost pots, you can contact the Pension Tracing Service.

One consumer put £900 in to pensions and by the time they tracked them down 27 years later they were worth £20,000, so it’s worth checking.

Other help you can get

If you are struggling with your bills then there are a number of charities and organisations which may be able to help:

There’s also set to be a £200 energy rebate due to help lower bills in the Autumn.

Households will have to pay this back over the next five years though, as £40 is added back onto their bills from April next year.

There’s no way to opt out of the scheme but it does mean everyone is eligible, and the idea is to help soften the blow of rocketing costs in the short term.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk