Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of ending the Household Support Fund on (a) local authorities and (b) people accessing local authority services.

Since October 2021, Government has provided over £2 billion to local authorities in England via the Household Support Fund (HSF) for them to provide discretionary support with the cost of essentials to those most in need. As with all government spending in England, the HSF has led to consequential increases in Barnett funding, which the Devolved Administrations can spend at their discretion. The current Household Support Fund runs from April 2023 until the end of March 2024.

No such assessment has been made of the potential impact of the ending of the Household Support Fund on local authorities and people accessing local authority services. The government continues to keep all its existing programmes under review in the usual way.