Rent Arrears Fund Application

The rent arrears fund is for tenants who live in Southwark or have been placed in temporary accommodation by Southwark Council, and who are threatened with eviction or homelessness due to rent arrears of no more than £3,000

1. You cannot apply for both a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) and a Rent Arrears Fund (RAF) payment within the same financial year.

2. Applicants can apply for this fund for financial assistance to pay up to £500 of the rent arrears to help prevent homelessness.

3. It is not guaranteed that arrears will be cleared.

4. Awards cannot be paid towards council tax or service charges.

5. This fund is discretionary, and any amount awarded is final.

6. To ensure your application can be assessed, you must send all required supporting documents with your application form. If any required documents are missing, you must send them to financial.inclusion@southwark.gov.uk within 7 calendar days of submitting your application.
If you do not provide the requested documents within this timeframe, your application will be refused. You will need to make a new application and ensure that all documents are included.

7. Your application will be assessed under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 for homelessness prevention.

8. Following this application, you may be referred for an appointment with a homelessness prevention officer for further advice on your housing circumstances.

9. The Income and Expenditure section of the application form must be completed in full so we can assess your application. If this section is left incomplete or insufficient information is provided, your application cannot be properly assessed and will be refused.
If you want your application to be reconsidered, you will need to submit a new application with all required information completed.

10. I understand that the Financial Mobility and Support Team administers both the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) and Rent Arrears Fund (RAF) schemes, and that applicants are only eligible to receive support from one of these funds in any financial year. If I have already applied for, or received, assistance from either scheme during the current financial year, I will not be eligible for support from the other fund.


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