Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Household Support Fund is available to those in need of support

£421 million Household Support Fund has been made available to councils in England to support those most in need due to the rising cost of living, especially around the need for food and fuel.

This funding covers the period 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022 inclusive.

The funding will primarily be used to support households in the most need with food, energy, and water bills. It can also be used to support households with essential costs related to those items and with wider essential costs.

The Council has flexibility within the scheme to identify which vulnerable households are in most need of support and apply their own discretion when identifying eligibility. In line with government guidance, awards must be based on the following framework:

• at least one third of the total funding is used to support households with children
• at least one third of the total funding is used to support pensioners
• the remainder of the funding, up to one third, is used to support other vulnerable households without children or pensioners, or for additional spend on the named groups in points one and two.

The Council’s scheme has been available since June and work with partner organisations is ongoing to ensure that funding is passed on to households as quickly as possible. A large proportion of funding has been allocated to schools to provide food for children in receipt of free school meals during the summer break. Schools also have the freedom to provide those children on the threshold of free school meals with some financial support.

Cllr Carol Gahan, Cabinet Member for Finance and Legal, said: “This is a challenging time for many of our residents and we are committed to making sure that this funding reaches those households who are experiencing financial hardship at this time.
 
“A proportion of the funding has been allocated to a number of charitable and partner organisations to distribute on our behalf to those meeting the government’s guidelines, including Citizens Advice Cheshire West and Age UK Cheshire. We would urge anyone in a low-income household that is unable to increase their income through work such as pensioners, people with disability, unpaid carers etc., to get in touch with the relevant organisation listed on the Council’s website.”

Household support fund | Cheshire West and Chester Council