London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to expand the household support fund, which is due to end next month and supports tens of thousands of households at threat of destitution with cash, food parcels, fuel vouchers and clothing.
What Are the Key Components of the Proposed Extension to the Household Support Fund?
The chancellor is comprehended to be looking at a fifth extension of the project, which was founded in autumn 2021 to allow councils to allocate small grants for essentials for people in need. The elements of the extension have not been finished. The fund was extended four times by the earlier government, commanding about £2bn, and is a key funder of food vouchers to support struggling parents feeding children during school holidays.
The Financial Times said that Reeves was likely to agree on an extension beyond 30 September when the fund is due to lapse, partly as a way to ease the impact of the end of the winter fuel allowances for all but the poorest pensioners.
What Impact Will the Fund’s Continuation Have on Local Crisis Aid Services?
Charities have previously cautioned that the end of the fund would mean council-run local crisis aid would disappear from nearly a third of English local authority areas covering 18 million individuals, including Birmingham, Bradford, Nottingham, Westminster, Croydon, Hampshire, Slough, and Stoke-on-Trent.
An End Furniture Poverty analysis written by the Guardian discovered 22 councils had said they would stop the vouchers if the fund was not renewed, with another 20 saying they were undecided, according to freedom of information requests.
The fund was originally presented in 2021 to try to mitigate the effect of the government’s decision to reverse the £20 pandemic uplift to universal credit. The last government continued the fund in March but saved just six months of funding.
A government spokesperson expressed more details would be set out in due period. “We are committed to helping pensioners and tackling the scar of poverty, despite the bad state of the public finances we have inherited.” On Tuesday the prime minister will make a significant speech setting out his goals for the return of parliament, promising to finish “14 years of rot and a decade of decline”.
Talking to an audience that will include teachers, nurses and businesspeople, Starmer will mark a contrast between his government and that of Boris Johnson, under which the Downing Street garden was utilised to host parties during lockdown.