Dorset: Homes for Ukraine hosts to receive extra payment

Dorset Council is providing additional supplement to people who took in refugees fleeing the war

Hosts of the Homes for Ukraine scheme are being handed a winter payment of up to £1,000 to help with the cost-of-living crisis.

Dorset Council is providing the additional supplement to people who took in refugees fleeing the war.

It has also said it will pay a further £250 a month to hosts continuing to open up their home after the initial six-month period expires.

One host thought the money would help, but it would "depend on the detail".

The council said the payment would enable local hosts to continue to provide a "safe haven" to those Ukrainian refugees who had "fled from the horrors of war".

David and Astrid Frankl are currently hosting two family groups, a total of four Ukrainians, in their Wimborne home.

David Frankl's Wimborne energy bills have almost quadrupled under the Homes for Ukraine scheme

"I don't know how this extra payment is going to work yet - it doesn't address the issue of whether you have an extra one person or six under your roof," Mr Frankl said.

He said their household bills had gone up "substantially", with total energy consumption about four times what it was a year ago.

"We've had to start heating an extra three bedrooms," he said.

"The water bill's gone up more than three times and last year's energy bill was about £1,500, this year we're on track for £6,000."

But Mr Frankl, whose parents fled Nazi Germany and became refugees in the UK, said the extra payment "will help, but it will depend on the detail and the small print".

Dorset Council is making an extra winter payment of up to £1,000 to help during the cost-of-living crisis

Dorset Council said the extra funding of up to to £1,000 would be allocated on a case-by-case basis with payments made in November and February.

The additional £250 per month will be provided to current hosts from month seven, up to month 12 of their hosting arrangements.

This is in addition to the existing monthly £350 "thank you" payment, the council said.