Citizens Advice - The Household Support Fund

The Household Support Fund

• In 2023, Citizens Advice has helped over 4 times more people with local welfare support than in 2021. This growth is being driven by demand for the Household Support Fund (HSF).
• The HSF has been a lifeline throughout the cost of living crisis, helping families put food on the table and heat their homes.
• Citizens Advice has helped over 46,600 people with the HSF since April 2023 (the current funding cycle).
• With cost of living payments also ending, thousands of families in financial crisis will face a cliff edge in support if the HSF is not extended past April 2024.

Over the cost of living crisis, demand for local support has skyrocketed: we helped over 4 times more people 1 with localised social welfare in 2023 compared to 2021.

Without the HSF, more households will go without

Of the more than 46,600 people Citizens Advice has helped with the HSF since April 2023, 43% also needed access to charitable support and 36% to food banks. Almost all our frontline advisers (96%) think households will still need the HSF after the current funding ends in April.

The HSF helped Anne meet her essential needs
Anne* works 13 hours a week, and has £4,000 of energy debts from electric and gas bills. Anne came to our local office for support when she had no money left to pay for food until her next paycheck in over a week's time. Because she earns over the qualifying threshold, she can't claim Universal Credit and hasn't received cost of living payments. Anne's local Citizens Advice advised her to apply for her local HSF, to help her meet her basic needs until her next paycheck.

The HSF helped Sam feed his family
Sam* lives with his partner and their 9 and 18-month-old children. Sam is off work waiting for a medical procedure and has struggled to keep up with his family's rising energy costs while on Universal Credit, especially because they have a prepayment meter. One of our local advisers helped Sam get a £105 supermarket voucher through his local HSF, so he could keep putting food on the table.

The HSF helped Matt look for a home
Matt* is currently homeless and living with a friend. The local housing association has offered him a flat but has asked for £310 to cover the first 4 weeks of rent. Matt doesn't have the savings to put down this deposit and hasn't yet received help from the council. Matt received a £90 supermarket voucher through the HSF to help him as he tries to find stable housing.

The HSF has been a vital source of support for marginalised groups

Marginalised groups, such as disabled people and single-parent households, are more likely to be in financial hardship: 1 in 5 single-parent households and nearly 1 in 10 households with a disabled person are in a negative budget, compared to 1 in 15 households in Britain.

The HSF helped Sarah care for her children and afford healthy food while pregnant
Sarah* is a single parent, caring for three young children, one of whom is disabled. Sarah is also pregnant, and so has been spending more money on healthy food. As a result, she has no money left for food for herself or her children while she waits for her next UC payment. Our advisers advised Sarah that she could get £200 from her local HSF to help her make ends meet until her next UC payment.

The HSF helped Penny travel to medical appointments, tackle her debt, and set up her new home
Penny* was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and often needs to travel for health appointments, putting a strain on her finances. Penny has debts and has also been dealing with moving into a new home. She doesn't have essentials like plates and bedding. Penny's local Citizens Advice was able to tackle these issues, using the HSF to cover a £90 DRO fee, providing Penny with £100 in home supplies vouchers, and £450 over 3 months to help cover her health-related travel costs.

Dan is challenging a PIP reassessment. The HSF helped him through this process
Dan* is disabled, and was previously receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP), including the enhanced rate for the mobility component. He came to his local Citizens Advice after a recent telephone re-assessment of his PIP claim concluded he no longer needed this support. As a result, his wife's Carer's Allowance is also due to stop, leaving their family with little to live on. Dan's local Citizens Advice helped him start the process of a Mandatory Reconsideration of his PIP assessment outcome. To help make up for the loss of his PIP support during this process, Dan's adviser helped him get £240 from the HSF.

We need a bigger and better HSF

Going forward we need to see the HSF not only extended but:

• Adequately funded, to prevent local funds running out or being rationed.
• Renewed on a multi-year basis, to give households and councils certainty about the future of the fund, and allow long-term planning and better administration.
• Allow non-digital applications, to give those digitally excluded equal access to support.

Rose's local HSF ran out 1 hour after applications opened
Rose* is working to clear her debts and needs to keep her home warm to help manage her arthritis. She is paying off £170 of debt on her electricity bill each month, so her finances are very tight. Rose visited Citizens Advice for support after trying to access her local HSF by phone at 9 am, the day applications opened. She managed to get through on the website at 10 am but was told all the funds had already been allocated. All our advisers could do was refer her to a local food bank.

Jemma couldn't apply for the HSF online without Citizens Advice support
Jemma* can't access the internet on her own and doesn't have a digital device. Jemma has previously been homeless but now lives in assisted accommodation. She's been struggling with the rising cost of living. One of our local advisers was able to complete the online application for the HSF on Jemma's behalf, but without this help, she would have been excluded from support.

In the long term

Ultimately, the HSF itself is evidence of a welfare state that is failing to meet people's most basic needs - the long-term goal needs not to be the ending of the HSF, but to remove the need for it altogether.

* All names have been changed.