Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Household Support Fund.

There have been five separate iterations of the Household Support Fund (HSF). Since the first iteration was introduced over £2.5 billion has been allocated to Local Authorities in England to distribute to those in need (October 2021- September 2024).

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.

MI has been published for the first three iterations of HSF following their completion. The latest MI covering HSF3 was published in August 2023 and can be found here: Household Support Fund 3 management information for 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The MI shows that just under £1.3 billion was spent in England during HSF1-3, corresponding to 26 million individual awards. Approximately 66% of funding of HSF1-3 (around £800 million) was spent on households with children.

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