Necessary steps

Temporary Additional Support is last resort financial assistance for clients who have regular essential living costs that cannot be met from their chargeable income and other resources.

To qualify for Temporary Additional Support a client must take all necessary steps to obtain financial assistance from all other sources to reduce their costs.

You should consider the following when assessing whether or not a client can receive Temporary Additional Support.

Have other alternatives been explored? For example:

• Is the client getting the correct rate of benefit?
• Can the client get other Extra help such as Accommodation Supplement, Disability Allowance, Child Disability Allowance or Winter Energy Payment (during the winter period)?
• Would an Advance Payment of Benefit, Recoverable Assistance Payment or a Special Needs Grant be more appropriate?

You may be able to eliminate or reduce a client's hardship by paying a one-off Special Needs Grant or Advance Payment of Benefit for a specific need.

As Advance Payments of Benefit, Recoverable Assistance Payments and some Special Needs Grants are recoverable, the effect on the client's circumstances needs to be taken into account when considering if this is more appropriate

Is there any other assistance available to client? For example:

• Working for Families Tax Credits
• assistance from another government agency

Note a client's decision about applying for or ending a Child Support arrangement cannot be considered when assessing entitlement to Temporary Additional Support.

You should consider declining, reducing or cancelling Temporary Additional Support where the client has not taken all necessary steps to obtain financial assistance from all other resources to reduce their costs. This includes when a client decides not to get Winter Energy Payment when they qualify for it during the winter period.

There will be some situations where the client may not be able to improve their financial circumstances, in these cases a client may still qualify for Temporary Additional Support.