£100 Covid-19 grants available for low-income families in Aberdeen

Aberdeen City Council is administering funds to assist local low-income families with children of pre-school age during the pandemic.

Two hardship funds are being administered by the local authority - a £100 Covid spring hardship grant for school age children and a £100 Covid spring hardship grant for pre-school children and food vouchers.

The grants are per child rather than household and are available to families regardless of whether or not their children are in funded early learning and childcare settings or already in receipt of free school meals.

The funding follows on from the £100 Covid winter hardship payment administered by the council.

The local authority says are no restrictions on how families choose to spend the additional payment.

Discretionary funding has also been agreed to provide food vouchers for pre-school children similar to the current low-income free school meals provision. Families will receive £12.50 per week per child for period of 12 weeks.

Councillor M Taqueer Malik, Aberdeen City Council’s education operational delivery vice-convener, said: "It’s crucial that we ensure that no family or child goes without during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and we are working hard to ensure that applications are processed as quickly as possible.

"O would urge eligible families to apply as soon as they can so they can receive their grants at the earliest opportunity."

Grants can be applied for at:

• https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/coronavirus-covid-19/funding-available-pre-school-age-children
• https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/coronavirus-covid-19/covid-spring-hardship-grant-children