24 December (Part 1) - Free money
It should be good news for some of Bexley’s poorer citizens even if the
reason for it is a national disaster that benefits no one apart from
pharmaceutical companies, close friends of Ministers and GPs on £15 a shot while
otherwise skiving off work.
The Government has offered Bexley £1,542 million to support vulnerable households and all that is needed is for Bexley’s
Cabinet to accept it and spend the money by the end of this financial year.
The Council has discretion over how it should be spent but half must go to
families with children. The proposal is that £696,000 will go to extending the
free school holiday meals scheme, 718,000 to the 14,267 households currently
benefitting from the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (about £26 per person extra) and the
remainder to voluntary organisations such as food banks. Well not quite all, the Council will keep
£28,000 of it for itself to cover postage and similar administration costs.
