DWP urged to extend £550 payments scheme as deadline looms | Personal Finance | Finance

Pressure is mounting on the Government to extend a support scheme helping hard-up families with grant payments of up to £550.

The Household Support Fund provides cash for local councils to give out in various ways such as vouchers or in direct payments, to help the most vulnerable cover their essential costs.

Local authorities are providing payments up to £550 to help pay for energy bills and water bills and food.

Food vouchers may also be on offer during the school holidays, according to Government information about the scheme.

But the project, now in its sixth round, is set to wrap up at the end of September, with some politicians in Westminster calling for it to be renewed.

Lib Dem peer, Lord Mike Storey, asked the Government if it had considered extending the scheme again beyond September.

Labour peer, Baroness Maeve Sherlock, said the new Government is “reviewing all policies” including the Household Support Fund.

Another question about the issue came from Labour peer Baroness Margaret Ritchie, who wanted to know what assessment they had made about the fund recently.

Responding to this query, Baroness Sherlock explained how the review system works.

She said: “DWP requires that Local Authorities provide Management Information (MI) returns to the Department, which demonstrate that they are delivering the scheme in accordance with the guidance and grant determination that the Department have set out for the scheme.

“This includes information on the type of household supported, category of spending, types of support and how support has been accessed.”

She pointed out that the MI for the first three versions of the fund had been published, with the most recent one coming out a year ago in August 2023.

This showed that 26 million payments had gone out with around two thirds of the payments spent on households with children, amounting to £800million.

She said this review process is continuing, adding: “DWP is conducting a process and impact evaluation of the fourth iteration of the Household Support Fund.

“This includes research with a selection of representative Local Authority case study areas, consisting of interviews with Local Authority officials and their delivery partners, and surveys and interviews with recipients of the Household Support Fund.

“This evaluation will provide key evidence on how Local Authorities are delivering the scheme and the impacts of the funding for recipients.”

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