Decision details

The Director of Economic Development and Planning submitted a report updating Committee on the Household Support Fund Round 5 (HSF5) and seeking approval for potential spend.

On 6 March 2024, in the Spring Budget, the Chancellor had announced that the Household Support Fund (HSF) would be extended for a further six months from 1 April 2024 to 30 September 2024. Lancashire County Council (LCC) had been awarded £9,678,235.22 which matched their previous six-month period allocations.

LCC had confirmed that there were some slight additions to the terms and conditions of the grant, and they aimed to provide details for District allocations after the Easter holiday.

Under the Household Support Fund Round 4 (HSF4), a supermarket voucher application scheme ran initially from 3 July to 1 September 2023, the criteria for which was noted in the report. A second round of applications ran from 2 October to 1 December 2023. The report informed Members that 214 eligible applicants from HSF4 had not received vouchers due to insufficient funding, and Committee approval was therefore sought to prioritise these applicants in the HSF5 round of funding, subject to sufficient funding from LCC.

The report also detailed key changes from the previous versions of the fund, as confirmed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

A further report would be brought to Committee setting out the proposed HSF5 scheme which would detail the amount of funding and any specified criteria from LCC.

RESOLVED THAT COMMITTEE:

Approve that the eligible applicants as part of HSF4, who did not receive a supermarket voucher due to insufficient funding, should be prioritised in the event that RVBC receive sufficient funding from LCC, and that each of the households be invited to apply for funding again to ensure that they are still eligible (in accordance with the scheme delivered as part of HSF4).