A SCHEME which funds practical help for people in extreme poverty is being revamped.

The district’s Local Welfare Assistance scheme provides people in desperate need with food, fuel vouchers or loans for essential household appliances.

It is run by Bradford Council using a pot of funding which currently stands at £1.6m.

Now the authority has said the system needs updating to make sure it is best able to help people affected by recent changes to the welfare system as well as those facing higher Council Tax bills.

It comes after Bradford Council decided to cut the Council Tax discounts it gives to thousands of disabled people, carers and working-age households on low incomes.

Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe said: "With the increasing level of Government cuts, I am concerned about people who are struggling so I asked for this paper to come to the Executive for a decision.

"We must make sure that the budget we have is accessible to those people in most need and works for the widest number of people. There are improvements I believe we can make."

Currently, the Local Welfare Assistance scheme funds foodbank parcels, top-up vouchers for pre-payment fuel meters and loans for new or second-hand home appliances and furniture.

The fuel vouchers are given out by local debt advice agencies and are limited to £80 a year per person.

An estimated £50,000 will have been spent on them in 2017/18, Council papers show.

Under the changes, families with children would be given greatest priority for these vouchers.

And payments to help people in arrears with their fuel bills and at risk of disconnection during the winter months would be reintroduced.

Support would only be given if the person also accepts financial advice.

The loans for new or second-hand household furniture and white goods would continue, but would be extended to include the installation costs of these goods.

A new report, by interim director of corporate resources Parveen Akhtar, says: “This will remove those situations where essential goods are not taken because the resident is unable to have it installed.”

The report also says there are now a number of organisations giving out food parcels or hot meals to the needy in Bradford, but there is an “unfilled” need for essential non-food items like toiletries, nappies or sanitary products.

The scheme would be tweaked to include the funding of these products.

Keith Thomson, treasurer of Bradford Metropolitan Foodbank, said the change sounded like a welcome one.

He said: “If you have got nothing to buy food with, you have probably got no money to buy these types of items.”

He said the Metropolitan Foodbank didn’t currently ask people for donations of non-food items but often received them and made sure they went to those who needed them.

A final decision on the proposals will be made by Bradford Council’s Executive at City Hall on Tuesday.