Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
Paragraph: 41
Household Support Fund provides uneven support and suffers from low awareness.
Conclusion
The Household Support Fund has enabled the provision of support to vulnerable households who are not eligible for the cost of living support payments or for whom the payments are not sufficient. However, we are concerned by the uneven nature of support offered by the Household Support Fund which can be a postcode lottery dependent on the local authority in which a person lives. A lack of awareness of the fund seems to have resulted in those eligible, and in need, not applying for support. As a result of this we reiterate our concern, raised in our cost of living report in 2022, that a question remains as to whether or not the fund is supporting the most vulnerable households effectively.
Government Response Summary
The government defends the Household Support Fund's flexible design, stating it allows local authorities to respond to local need, and highlights current efforts like an Awareness Week, leaflets, and knowledge-sharing events to improve communication and accessibility.
Paragraph Reference:
41
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Household Support Fund has provided millions of awards to households in need to support them with the cost of essentials, backed by over £2 billion of funding, since October 2021. There were more than 10 million awards provided between October 2022 and March 2023, with more than 26 million provided across the first three schemes. We know from the local authority management information (MI) return that local authorities have been providing these awards to a range of different households in need. The Household Support Fund is an intentionally flexible scheme designed to enable local authorities in England to respond to local need within the overall framework set by DWP through the grant determination and guidance. Local authorities have the ties and local knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided to their local communities. Local authorities also have a wide range of data and sources of information at their disposal to identify and provide support to a broad cross-section of vulnerable households, whilst paying due regard to equality considerations. Since October 2022, authorities have been asked to operate at least part of their scheme on an application basis, giving people the opportunity to come forward to ask for help should they need it. As mentioned, the Department requires that local authorities provide MI returns on how they have spent the Household Support Fund. This enables the Department to understand how the funding has been used and helps us ensure that support for the broad cross- section of potentially vulnerable households, that we encourage authorities to consider, is available across England. We also produce a collection of Household Support Fund posters and leaflets that are distributed to local authorities, alongside guidance which makes it clear that authorities must publish their support plans online and clearly mark these plans as part of the Household Support Fund. This helps ensure that information about the Fund is consistent and accessible across England, regardless of eligibility differences based upon local need. In October 2023, we held the first ever Household Support Fund Awareness Week to raise public awareness of the scheme, celebrate the work local authorities have done in delivering it, and promote its existence to households struggling with essential costs. We have also run a number of knowledge share events with local authorities which have covered various topics, including best practice for promoting the Fund to hard-to-reach households.