In the Spring Budget, the Government announced a six month extension of its Household Support Fund scheme and has given local councils nearly £500million of funding to provide cost of living support to people struggling in their areas
Thousands of households across the UK will be able to claim cost of living support over the next six months.
In the Spring Budget, the Government announced a six month extension of its Household Support Fund scheme. The scheme started in October 2021 and has been extended several times since and gives pots of cash to local councils which they can then spend on providing support to vulnerable people living in the area.
Each council gets a certain amount depending on how many people live there and they can decide what the money is spent on. The latest £421million will fund the scheme until September this year. Local authorities have been informed of their funding and many are deciding on how they will spend it.
Support over the last few years has usually ranged from free cash payments, supermarket vouchers, council tax discounts, and energy bill support. You can only claim help from your local authority, this does mean it is a bit of a postcode lottery on the help you can get.
In this year’s funding, councils in East Midlands have been given £34,568,744 while local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber have £47,046,422 to share out. Those in the South West have been given £37,564,628 and North East councils £24,202,622. London councils have been allocated the biggest share of the latest round of funding, with £67,871,40 to give to qualifying households.
Councils are advised to allocate the money to “vulnerable households in most need of support to help with significantly rising living costs”. The majority of councils have focused the help on people claiming certain Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HMRC benefits and those on low incomes.
The Household Support Fund is running until September 2024 – all councils have to have spent all their funding cash by this point. If anything is left over, it has to be returned to the central Government. Councils are currently working on their funding plans, and they will confirm these plans over the coming few weeks.
To find out what this is you should go to your local council’s website. Usually, they will have a separate cost of living tab which details the help on offer. You should also be aware that councils often only have certain windows to apply for any help so you will need to keep an eye out on when these windows are.
How much Household Support Funding is each region getting?
- North East – £24.2million
- East Midlands – £34.56million
- South West – £37.56million
- East of England – £40.03million
- Yorkshire and the Humber – £47.04million
- West Midlands – £49.52million
- South East – £54.11million
- North West – £66.06million
- London – £67.87million
