Staff Writer
Wiltshire Council has provided an update on its work to allocate the latest round of the Household Support Fund and ensure it gets to those who need it most.
The Household Support Fund is provided by the Department for Work and Pensions and is in place to support households that would otherwise struggle to buy food or pay essential utility bills, or meet other essential living costs to help them during the current cost-of-living challenges.
In round four of the scheme, Wiltshire Council was awarded more than £5.4m for allocating throughout the 2023-24 financial year. Following confirmation of the allocation, the council has received the grant conditions, as stipulated by the Department for Work and Pensions.
The council is currently reviewing how to meet these new grant conditions to ensure the money will support those in the county facing challenges with the impact of the cost-of-living increases. It will share the detail and information with relevant people, groups and organisations when this is finalised.
The most significant allocation in the previous rounds of the fund has been focussed on helping to provide free school meals to eligible families during school holidays and support to households on a low income where the residents are over 65 years of age.
Other potential uses of the fund can include:
- Support with energy bills
- Supporting households with the cost of food and essential costs related to energy, food and water
- Supplementary advice services to award recipients, including debt and benefit advice
Wiltshire Council will submit its delivery plan for the fund to the Department for Work and Pensions by mid-May.
Cllr Richard Clewer, Leader of Wiltshire Council, said: “The Household Support Fund is proving to be vital to those who need it most at this continuing challenging time and we are working hard to ensure it gets to the right people.
“We are currently in the middle of finalising our plans for the next phase of the fund and as soon as we’ve confirmed all the details we will engage with our partners to work with us to help us deliver it.
“We can assure people that we’ll allocate this funding as quickly as we can and thank people for their patience while we get everything arranged.”
An update on the Household Support Fund was provided at the cabinet meeting on 28 March. The full report can be found at Agenda for Cabinet on Tuesday, 28 March 2023, 10.00 am | Wiltshire Council
Information about the next phase of the Household Support Fund will be available at Household Support Fund Winter 2022/23 – Wiltshire Council.
Wiltshire Council also has a range of cost-of-living advice and support, and this can be found at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/cost-of-living.
Andy Munns
