Cost of Living Support Hub – Provision House

Please read: Updated criteria to attend hubs (change made 27th April 2023):

Prior to booking an appointment at our Hubs, please ensure you read all the following information carefully.

Due to significant demand for our hubs, we have to limit how many times a household can attend one of our hubs to make sure we can support as many households as possible. Therefore, we are allowing households to attend up to 3 times since our hubs opened on 30th January. This is for any of our hubs (ie 3 times across any hub and not per hub).

Also, there needs to be a minimum of 12 days between each appointment.

If you have attended 3 times in any of our hubs, then you will have to wait until 31st July where we will review this criteria based on demand. So please re-check this Eventbrite page or our website as of 31st July for an update.

If you book an appointment and don’t meet the criteria to be able to attend, we will either cancel your appointment before the day or decline entry on the day. So to limit disappointment, we kindly ask you to adhere to this request. If you can’t book an appointment and need help due to the cost of living crisis, please go to Dudley Council’s website for additional help:https://www.dudley.gov.uk/council-community/cost-of-living

ID Required

On the day of your appointment, you must bring with you 2 forms of ID:

✓ 1 form of ID with your name (passport, travel pass, debit card etc)

AND;

✓ 1 form of ID with your name and address on it to prove you’re a Dudley Borough resident (eg. a council tax bill).

We reserve the right to request photo ID when you are at the hub to authenticate your ID.

We reserve the right to cancel the appointment should we feel the ID is not that of the appointment holder or that the ID is not authentic.

Please note: If you are providing a bank statement for proof of address it must be downloaded onto your phone or a hard copy presented to staff. We will not accept your address from a mobile banking app.

Hub Process

You must arrive for your appointment on time at the beginning of the appointment slot you have booked.

When you arrive at one of our hubs at the allocated appointment start time, one of our friendly hub staff will greet you and complete an assessment to establish your eligibility for support.

Poverty relieving practical assistance will then be provided based on your assessment. For example:

✓ Giving information on how to save money and make money stretch further

✓ Offering practical help relating to access to food, fuel, energy, period products, available benefits, grants and funds based on qualifying criteria

✓ Showing how energy usage can be reduced and ways to save money on utilities

✓ Issuing a voucher per household to purchase essentials in a variety of shops (NB: these vouchers can only be issued in a crisis, and are subject to availability)

✓ Issuing a fuel bank voucher (NB: only available to those on a pre-payment meter and those who haven’t already received 3 fuel bank vouchers in the last 6 months from an organisation and not within the last 10 days)

✓ Making a referral for a 3-month loan of a laptop to help at home (subject to equipment availability)

✓ Identifying other organisations that can help with the struggles being experienced

If you need us, we look forward to seeing you there!

Appointment Time

Please note, once you have booked an appointment through Eventbrite you will receive a confirmation email. On this email it will state the start of the session time. Please arrive 5 minutes before your appointment start time and please be prepared to stay for the whole session time. Please note due to demand for this service late arrivals may be refused entry as your appointment could be given to someone else on the day.

Cancellation

If you no longer want an appointment or can’t attend, please cancel the appointment so it can be released for another person to book. Our resources are precious so please be kind and don’t waste the appointment – cancel even if it’s on the day. Thank you!

Due to demand for this service, we release appointments on a weekly basis. If there are no appointments available, please keep checking every day until more are released.

Sessions cannot be booked directly at the venues due to demand and the session must be booked in the name of the person attending the Hub.