23rd May 2024

Homes For Ukraine Lincolnshire e-newsletter

Welcome to the latest issue of our e-newsletter for Homes For Ukraine guests and hosts. This newsletter is sent out by Lincolnshire County Council's Homes For Ukraine team. You can email the team on homesforukraine@lincolnshire.gov.uk

Visit the 'Connect to Support' website to read this newsletter in Ukrainian or Russian.

Відвідайте веб-сайт "Зверніться до служби підтримки", щоб прочитати цей інформаційний бюлетень українською або російською мовами.

Посетите сайт "Связь с поддержкой", чтобы прочитать этот бюллетень на украинском или русском языках.

Lincolnshire County Council Homes For Ukraine team

In Lincolnshire the Homes For Ukraine scheme is administrated by the Homes For Ukraine team at Lincolnshire County Council. There are lots of other organisations who help us - for example District Councils, the Fire Service, the Wellbeing Team - but the scheme is run by the team at LCC.

If you have any questions at all about the Homes For Ukraine scheme you can email the team at homesforukraine@lincolnshire.gov.uk. We do not have a phone number but our email is monitored constantly by a team of people during working hours. Questions coming in by email allows us to prioritise which messages need an immediate response and which are more routine in nature. All emails are seen within a few minutes of them arriving - typically we respond to urgent emails immediately, routine queries we respond within two working days (although normally much quicker).

So if you do have any questions please do contact us at homesforukraine@lincolnshire.gov.uk - we will either help you directly or pass you along to another organisation who can help.

Re-matching to a new host

If you are a guest who is looking to move to a new host - for any reason - please contact the Homes For Ukraine team. We can try and find you another host in Lincolnshire. We do not have a large supply of new hosts and you may need to move to another part of Lincolnshire but we can try and help. Please email us on homesforukraine@lincolnshire.gov.uk if you would like to discuss this.

'Thank You' Payments

Guests travelling abroad

If guests are away from their hosts for more than 28 days the UK Government instructs us to pause thank you payments until the guest returns.

We are seeing high levels of guest travel from and back to the UK. Please can we remind hosts and guests to let us know when a guest has left your accommodation - even if the guest is intending to return within less than 28 days - so that we can update our records. The situation in Ukraine remains difficult and guest travel plans are understandably fluid so even if a guest is not planning on being away long, plans can change. So it is helpful for us to be informed when guests come and go so that we can administer thank you payments correctly.

We do not receive all this information from Border Force so we are to an extent reliant on hosts and guests informing us when they are leaving/returning to the UK. Thank you for your understanding with this.

Thank you payments in South Kesteven

In accordance with national guidance you may be receiving a monthly thank you payment for hosting a Homes For Ukraine guest.

We are making some changes to how thank you payments are sent.

Until now, payments have been sent out by District Councils. We have decided that Lincolnshire County Council will take over making these payments. This will enable us to simplify the application process, resolve queries faster and provide a single organisation that hosts need to talk to.

We are working our way across the county, switching hosts from being paid by their District Council to being paid by Lincolnshire County Council.

The next group of hosts we will switch across are hosts in South Kesteven.

If you are a host in South Kesteven you will shortly receive an email from homesforukraine@lincolnshire.gov.uk with further information about the changes, and an online form for you to complete with some details about you as a host including which bank account you would like your payments made into. We would appreciate it if South Kesteven hosts could look out for this email - we want to ensure that hosts are set up on our financial systems promptly so that nobody misses out on any payments.

This change does not affect how much you are eligible to receive, it is just a behind-the-scenes administrative change of where the payments come from.

We would also like to note that hosts are able to apply for thank you payments at any point during their hosting and - subject to meeting the eligibility criteria for being a host - may be entitled to back-dated payments.

Other rules around thank you payments

There are various rules we need to comply with around thank you payments, for example, what happens if your guest leaves your accommodation part way through the month? If you would like to find out more about this please head to our Homes For Ukraine Lincolnshire website, which explains the rules in more detail.

Visas

eVisas

Most Homes For Ukraine guests will have a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP). The BRP is a useful way of proving the right to work, the right to rent, the right to have access to public funds.

Most Homes For Ukraine guests will have a BRP with an expiry date of 31 December 2024. This is because the UK Government are replacing Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) with online electronic "eVisas" from January 2025.

So from January 2025 people will have an online way of proving their immigration status, the right to work, to rent and so on. From January 2025 people will no longer be able to use the physical BRP cards.

Please note that the BRP expiry date of 31 December 2024 is the date that the BRP expires, it is NOT when the guest's Homes For Ukraine visa expires.

The BRP is just a way of proving your immigration status and its associated rights - from January 2025 onwards this will be proved with an online eVisa instead.

The UK Government have produced a short video summarising eVisas (the video is in English but the YouTube subtitles can be switched to other languages).

At the moment you can only apply for an eVisa if you have been invited to by the UK Government. However our understanding is that over summer 2024 the UK Government will open up a new process allowing anyone to apply for their eVisa. This will be an online process involving guests creating a UK Visas and Immigration account. We will provide further information as and when we receive it from central government.

Homes For Ukraine guests do not need to do anything yet. Guests will be able to start applying for eVisas over the summer. However we know that guests and hosts already have questions about this process and we just wanted to share everything we know at this stage.

Please also note that switching to an eVisa is about changing how you demonstrate your current right to be in the UK. There will be an entirely separate process for Homes For Ukraine guests to apply to extend the length of time they can stay in the UK. This extension scheme is still being worked on by the UK Government, we will provide further details as soon as we have them.

How to find out when your Homes for Ukraine visa expires

We know that many guests are concerned about when their current Homes For Ukraine visas expire, and the date that the visas run out is not always obvious. There is the additional confusion that Biometric Residence Permits expire on 31 December 2024 but this is not the date that the visa expires.

Guests may have been told the date their Homes For Ukraine visa expires in the correspondence they received from the UK Government when the visa was granted. Alternatively guests may have had their visa expiry date confirmed when they entered the UK. Or guests may simply never have been told the date their visa expires.

If you are a guest who is unsure of when your Homes For Ukraine visa expires the easiest way that we have found to confirm the dates is to use the government share code website that proves your right to work in the UK (you will need your BRP to do this):

Prove your right to work to an employer: Get a share code online - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Click on the green "Start now" button and select the "I have a biometric residence card or permit". Say "Yes" that you do have a biometric residence permit. Then input your BRP number and your date of birth.

You will then be shown a screen showing a date range when you are allowed to work in the UK. This date range corresponds to your Homes For Ukraine visa date range - so the last date is the date your Homes For Ukraine visa expires.

The UK Government are working on an extension scheme to allow Homes For Ukraine guests to extend their leave to remain in the UK by another 18 months. The details of this have not been confirmed yet but we will share them as soon as they are available.

Standard Visitor Visa

Homes For Ukraine visas are intended to help Ukrainians seek a long-term place of refuge from the war in Ukraine. They are not the appropriate visa type for family and friends to come to the UK for a short visit.

For Ukrainians wanting to come to the UK to visit family and friends there is another visa that should be used. This is called a Standard Visitor Visa.

Standard Visitor visas allow people to come to the UK for up to 6 months and do not allow the visitor to work, rent or claim public funds. Standard Visitor visas currently cost £115 and the earliest they can be applied for is 3 months before travelling.

HFU guests changing to another visa

There have been some occasions when guests on Homes For Ukraine visas have switched to another visa type - for example changing to a skilled worker visa, a student visa or a family visa. It is rare that a Homes For Ukraine guest will switch to another visa type but it does happen. Please can guests or hosts let the Homes For Ukraine team know when they switch to another visa because it may have an impact on things like thank you payments.

If you change visa you can let us know by emailing homesforukraine@lincolnshire.gov.uk.

Finances

School Uniforms

Help is available toward the costs of school uniforms for Ukrainian children who are starting primary or secondary school in Lincolnshire. To learn more about our offer, please click here.

Universal Credit

‘Universal Credit’ is a payment to help with you and your family’s living costs. It is paid monthly. You can apply for ‘Universal Credit’ if you are on a low income, not in employment or cannot work. Please note that although the word ‘credit’ sometimes translates to ‘loan’ in Ukrainian, general ‘Universal Credit’ is not repayable.

You may be able to apply for an advance payment of your Universal Credit if you are in financial hardship while you wait for your first payment to be received.

Specific information on financial support, including ‘Universal Credit’, for those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine is available on the gov.uk website. This site is also available in Ukrainian and Russian.

British Red Cross

British Red Cross are continuing to support guests providing financial support of £30 per week, per person while they are waiting for their first Universal or Pension Credit payment. Considering there is at least a first UC payment in advance, the pension credit does not have this option. Email referrals to RSEastMidlandsUkraine@redcross.org.uk.

Transport

Single CallConnect single journeys only £2

CallConnect is Lincolnshire's on-demand bus service, and is a way of easily travelling around if you live in a rural area that does not support many traditional bus routes.

The prices have now changed to cost at most £2 for a one-way journey. For a lot of journeys this will result in a significant savings for passengers. If you use CallConnect regularly you can also benefit from a multi-trip ticket which gives you 12 journeys for the price of 10.

To find out where you can travel to and from on CallConnect have a look at the fares calculator.

CallConnect journeys must be booked in advance, either by telephoning or booking via an app. The details of how to use CallConnect can all be found on the CallConnect website.

Wellbeing

The Wellness Network

The Wellness Network are starting their new FREE mental health and physical wellbeing online Mind & Body Programme on Wednesday 29th May @ 6:30pm - 8:30pm. This programme aims to take you through ways to help yourself make small changes for a happier healthier life.

Learning

Access to Higher Education

If you want to find out more about Higher Education or getting a University place as a refugee Refugee Education UK gives advice through an online advice service and face-to-face support services.

Events

TEDx talks in Lincoln

TEDx are running an event in Lincoln in conjunction with TEDxKyiv, a one-of-a-kind collaboration to help amplify voices from wartorn Ukraine.

The event is happening in November, but there is a deadline of the end of May if you wish to apply to be a speaker at the event.

More details are available on the TEDxBrayfordPool website.

Lincolnshire Wolds Outdoor Festival

Lincolnshire Wolds Outdoor festival takes place from 11th - 27th May, and hosts over 100 events and activities across a variety of locations, many of these activities will be free of charge or at a reduced cost. To find out more and see what events are taking place please click here.

Refugee Week 17th - 23rd June 2024

Refugee Week Events

The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is 'Our Home'. From the places we gather to share meals to our collective home, planet earth: everyone is invited to celebrate what Our Home means to them.

There are a number of events taking place across the country to celebrate Refugee Week, to find out more about what events are available or to take part in a different way please click here.

Activities/support/events for Ukrainians from the Boston Lithuanian Community (BLC)

ESOL sessions for Ukrainians - Tuesdays 10:00 - 11:30am @ 4 Fountain Place, Boston, PE21 6BF
Free consultations and assistance: help with form filling, phone calls, etc - Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00am - 12:00pm @ 4 Fountain Place, Boston, PE21 6BF

British Red Cross event

British Red Cross are running a refugee week event in Leicester on Saturday 22nd June 2024 10am - 4pm. There will be live music, arts & crafts, children's activities and information stalls - Jubilee Square, Leicester, LE1 4LD.

Other Support

Wellbeing Lincs support for Ukrainians in Lincolnshire

'Wellbeing Lincs' offers emotional and practical support - for example, help with advice on accessing health, education, benefits and housing - to all hosts and guests in Lincolnshire.

If you need to have a potentially difficult conversation with your host / guest, the 'Wellbeing Lincs' team may be able help you navigate this. They are trained in providing mediation and can support you in talking things through openly and honestly to reach a positive solution.

For help, email ukraine.wellbeing@e-lindsey.gov.uk with your name, address, contact information and a brief description of what you need.

The team will aim to be in touch within two working days. They can also be contacted by phone on 01507 613044 from 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday or 10am to 4.30pm on Fridays.

Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice is a charity that offers free support and advice to residents. They can help with a range of issues including claiming universal credit and other benefits. Citizens Advice can provide home visits in rural areas and can attend community groups in Lincolnshire with translation support.

In Lincolnshire there is a dedicated helpline number and email address for Homes For Ukraine guests to use if you would like to ask for help - you can call 0344 847 6128 or email ukraine@citizensadvicesouthlincs.org.uk.

Important Links / Важливі посилання / Важные ссылки

Contact us

If you have any questions, please contact Lincolnshire County Council's Homes For Ukraine team on homesforukraine@lincolnshire.gov.uk.