Oral Answers to Questions

Alistair Strathern Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)]

11. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the extension of the household support fund in 2025-26 on low-income households.

[Alistair Strathern (Hitchin) (Lab)]

15. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the extension of the household support fund in 2025-26 on low-income households.

[Damien Egan (Bristol North East) (Lab)]

19. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the extension of the household support fund in 2025-26 on low-income households.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Western]

The household support fund is intended to support a wide range of households in need, including pensioner households. There has been no ringfencing of funding for specific groups since October 2022, meaning that local authorities have the flexibility to support pensioners who are just above the pension credit threshold. In the 2023-24 financial year, 26% of household support funding went towards meeting energy costs.

[Alistair Strathern]

I welcome the Government’s decision to provide more than £1 billion in new funding for the household support fund, extending it all the way through next year, and to give much more notice to the local authorities that deliver it. The funding is so important not just to countless vulnerable residents, but to great local organisations, such as the Need Project food banks in my constituency. How will the Department work with local authorities to make the most of the notice and to ensure the funding goes as far as possible?

[Andrew Western]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As a former local authority leader, I know that above all else, certainty will allow councils to design and deliver sustainable plans for local welfare assistance. The Government’s commitment to funding the HSF until March 2026 offers that certainty and time to plan with greater confidence. To that end, we will confirm individual allocations for the forthcoming one-year extension to the HSF as soon as possible, and ahead of the scheme beginning on 1 April.