Janet: What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs regarding access to emergency financial support for residents affected by recent flooding?
Rebecca Evans AM: Homes affected during recent storms will receive up to £1,000 from Welsh Government. We are asking those impacted to contact their local authority emergency support teams in the first instance, to ensure they can access support as quickly as possible.
Janet: Thank you. As I've mentioned here numerous times, storm Ciara very sadly hit my constituency on 9 February 2020. Now an emergency funding relief scheme was announced on 18 February, and the First Minister stated, 'We will make urgent financial support available to people whose homes have been flooded and, in particular, help families who do not have insurance cover'.
Now, four weeks later, I am still being contacted by a number of my constituents who have filled in the appropriate forms and not heard a thing, and in a month, that's not good. So they've not received a penny. Now, on Sunday Politics, I was really heartened to hear you say that all those affected have now received their £500. Well, as I mentioned, I've got a number that haven't, so what I thought I might do, outside the Chamber, is write to you directly with details of those, so that maybe—. But are you aware of a problem in the processing of these application forms? And I have raised it with the local authority, who say, 'Well, we've done our part.' They've filled the forms in, we've sent them off, but there is this quite long delay, and I also have one lady who's not been offered the £500. She's been offered £80 but has suffered thousands of pounds' worth of damage, so I'm a bit worried about the criteria. Will you look into the processes? Because all I'm asking for is some fairness and balance for my constituents, so that they have something to help them get back on their feet after this awful flooding on 9 February.
Rebecca Evans AM: I share any concern that people are waiting too long to receive their funding. Most applications to the discretionary assistance fund are processed within 24 hours, so individuals should have the funding within their bank accounts very quickly indeed.
I know that, as of 4 March, there were 278 awards made at £500, and 266 awards made at £1,000, so representing over a total of £405,000. So, I know that DAF is looking at verifying independent claims using data provided by local authorities, so what the individuals really need is for those local authorities to verify and to vouch for the fact that those individual homes have been affected by flooding, and that should be enough for the discretionary assistance fund. So, in the first instance, it would be about the local authority just confirming to DAF that those households have been affected, and then that should make things move more quickly. But of course, I'm keen to provide assistance if I can.
