Council leaders have welcomed today’s announcement of over £840m of support for the most vulnerable, but call for a more long-term approach to protecting struggling households.
Announced today by the Department for Work and Pensions, the funding is an extension of the Household Support Fund and has been allocated to English councils to distribute.
The distribution of the funding is targeted at the areas of the country with the most vulnerable households, according to the DWP.
Mims Davies, DWP minister for Social Mobility, Youth and Progression, said: ‘The Household Support Fund has already helped vulnerable families across England through these challenging times and I am pleased it will continue to do so for another full year.’
Cllr Pete Marland, chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Resources Board, welcomed the extension of the fund saying it was a ‘positive’ move.
However, he also urged the Government to take a more long-term, systematic approach to helping the most vulnerable households.
‘Councils should also have the resources and flexibilities to tackle these inequalities, alongside a sufficient mainstream welfare system, which ensures families have enough income to meet their essential living costs. This includes addressing the freeze in local housing allowance rates,’ he said.
‘The Government should also make the Household Support Fund it has provided to councils permanent, alongside greater flexibility to ensure it helps people in the greatest need and crucially shift focus from short-term crisis support to investing in prevention.’
Cllr Carl Les, finance spokesperson for the County Councils Network (CCN), said: 'Our research has shown how our councils are using these funds to support the most vulnerable in a variety of ways, from providing support to charity groups seeing high demand, food and fuel vouchers for households, and freezing transport fares for those in higher and adult education.
'It is important that moving forward the Household Support Fund continues for as long as the cost-of-living crisis does, with maximum flexibility given to councils in how they use the funds locally to benefit their communities.'
