Agenda item

          The Board received a report which provided an update regarding delivery of the Government’s Household Support Fund from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 and spending plans for the Fund during 2023/24.

          The Board noted the final expenditure of the Household Support Fund from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023.  £167,314 was awarded by the Discretionary Support Scheme through its telephone application process.  £536,592 was spent on school meal vouchers which were issued during school holidays and £405,500 was spent on supporting those vulnerable pensioner households who were in receipt of a Council Tax reduction.

          The Benefits Division co-ordinated the use of the grant on behalf of the Council and Appendix A outlined how the grant funding was utilised via a combination of Council departments and the Voluntary Sector. 

          In February 2023, it was confirmed that Halton had been allocated grant funding of £2.6M.  In April 2023, the Council’s Executive Board approved a Spending Plan on how the allocation would be utilised.  It was agreed to allocate £356,000 to the Discretionary Support Scheme which would cover a wide range of low income households in need, including families with children, pensioners and people with disabilities.  It was estimated that the free school meals vouchers would cost approximately £1,170,000 and this would provide approximately 7,500 children with free school meals throughout all of the school holidays over the next 12 months. 

          In order to support vulnerable pensioner households, it was decided that all those in receipt of a Council Tax reduction would be provided with a one-off award of £120.  It was estimated that 4,181 pensioner households would benefit from this award, at a total cost of £501,720. 

          In 2023/24, there would be additional funding allocations to Public Health, Care Leavers and Voluntary Sector Partners.  It was agreed to allocate £100,000 to Public Health who would support vulnerable households that may fall outside those covered by the rest of the Spending Plan.  They would also target support to those families who had pre-school aged children and who where flagged on the Income Deprivation Index affecting children.  In addition, families who had disabled pre-school aged children.  £82,126 was allocated for this project.

          £82,127 was allocated to make a cost of living award to recent care leavers and to those young people who would become care leavers in the next 12 months.

          Voluntary Sector partners would be again, asked to assist the Council with the delivery of support to residents.  The grant allocations made for the previous 6 month period to Citizens Advice, Food Banks, Affordable Warmth etc had doubled for the coming year.  Each organisation would be asked to provide a detailed proposal of how they intended to utilise the funding and provide a regular update to the Council with monitoring information for submission to the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP).

The Benefits Division would co-ordinate use of the grant on behalf of the Council and progress with delivery of the Household Support Fund during 2023/24 would be reported regularly to the Board.  If the grant was not fully spent by 31 March 2024, and/or not spent in accordance with the grant guidance, it would be clawed back by the DWP.

          RESOLVED:  That:

1)    The actual delivery of the Household Support Fund for the period
1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023, as outlined in the report, be noted; and

2)    The Spending Plan for the Household Support Fund for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 as presented in Appendix 2, be noted.