Councillor Seema Chandwani, Cabinet Member for Resident Services & Tackling Inequality, approved the allocation of the £4,241,687.45 Household Support Fund provided by the government for the period of 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. The funding will be used to support vulnerable households with the cost of essentials, such as energy, food and water bills. A proportion of the funding will be made available to claim through the Haringey Support Fund.

Household Support Fund

Haringey Council has been allocated £4,241,687.45 from the government's Household Support Fund¹ for the period of 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. Councillor Seema Chandwani approved the allocation of this funding as set out in Appendix 1 of the report. She also delegated authority to the Delivery Director Tackling Inequality, following consultation with herself, to amend the policy to maximise and control the distribution of the fund and to give effect to changes in legislation or guidance issued by the government.

The objectives of the fund are to provide support to vulnerable households, recognising the profile and specific needs of residents in Haringey, to prevent households from escalating into crisis, and to support households with dignity and without stigma.

The funding will be allocated as follows:

• £1.99 million for free school meal vouchers for school-age children during the holidays.
• £1.23 million for direct cash payments of £95 to families in financial stress with children ineligible for free school meals, pensioner households in financial stress, low-income households with children under 5, payments to care leavers and households with no recourse to public funds.
• Direct cash payments of £195 to households in financial stress with a disabled claimant or partner, and households in receipt of Council Tax Support² and/or Housing Benefit³ with a disabled child.
• £544,000 to the Haringey Support Fund, an application-based process for households most in need of extra support.
• £15,000 to voluntary and community sector organisations for the provision of warm spaces.
• £66,000 to the Council Tax Discretionary Hardship Fund, which offers one-off payments towards Council Tax bills for council taxpayers who are experiencing exceptional financial hardship.
• £400,000 for the costs of administering the scheme.

The council will use a data-driven approach to distribute the majority of funds, minimising administration costs and ensuring those most in need are supported without having to make a claim. A proportion of the funding will be made available to claim through the Haringey Support Fund so that all residents in hardship have the opportunity to claim additional support. All support will be available to households with No Recourse to Public Funds⁴ in line with government guidance.

The report noted that the Council would work closely with voluntary and community sector partners to promote awareness of the application-based scheme and encourage applications from hard-to-reach communities.

The Cabinet Member also agreed that the policy be subject to the availability of government funding and would terminate on 31 March 2026; and (in the event that government increases the funding available and/ or extends the eligible period beyond 31 March 2026), agreed that authority is delegated to the Delivery Director Tackling Inequality to extend this policy as appropriate.

The reasons for the decision were that the guidance for the fund allows local authorities to determine eligibility in their area and target support to those most in need but within the scope of conditions set by the DWP, and that the Household Support Fund payments would support households over the grant period and all funding must be spent between 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.

The council had identified that the cohort of low-income households with children, who were eligible to receive free school meals vouchers, would be particularly impacted by the high cost of living, and that the policy allocated £1.99m for free school meals vouchers for these children over each school holiday period.

The council had also identified cohorts of low-income residents who were at risk or in crisis using its Low-Income Family Tracker (LIFT) data or had no recourse to public funds, recognising that these groups would be particularly impacted by the high cost of living, and allocating £1.23m to cash payments for these groups, who would receive vouchers to exchange for cash without having to apply.

The guidance for the fund requires local authorities to include an application-based approach for residents, which the council achieves through funding its local welfare assistance scheme: the Haringey Support Fund. The reinstatement of the Winter Fuel Payment for all pensioners had allowed the council to add £244k back into the scheme, bringing the total allocation up to £544k.

£15k of funding would also be distributed to the voluntary and community sector for the provision of warm spaces in the Winter, as this provision was previously funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which has now ended.

The costs of administering the scheme were under-funded in the May policy, which had been rectified in this policy by increasing the funding from £350k to £400k.

The latest data on low-income households showed that the council would have a £66k surplus within the budget originally allocated in the May policy, and this revised policy therefore allocated the £66k to the Council Tax Discretionary Hardship Fund, which offered one- off payments towards Council Tax bills for council taxpayers who were experiencing exceptional financial hardship and were therefore unable to pay some or all of their bill.

Alternative options considered included higher values of vouchers distributed to residents, but these options were discounted as it would leave insufficient funding for the Haringey Support Fund, which was the application-based route required by the Fund's rules.