Decision

The attached report sets out how Leeds City
Council will allocate £12,511,156 funding from the Department
for Work and Pensions (DWP) Household Support Fund between 1st
April 2025 and 31st March 2026.

A Key Decision (D55289) was taken in May 2022 to accept the
DWP’s Household Support Fund at that time, along with any
further extensions of funding for the Household Support Fund.

The report outlines the proposal for distributing the HSF across
the city to support vulnerable households. These proposals aim to
ensure residents most in need receive support directly as well as
through preventative means. The proposals are based on the
experience of running six previous rounds of the fund.

The Director for Communities, Housing and the Environment is
recommended to:

1. Accept the allocation of £12,511,156 HSF from the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), to be used between 1st
April 2025 and the end of March 2026.
2. Accept the proposed levels of expenditure as outlined in this
report to ensure that the funding meets the grant criteria to
support vulnerable pensioners, families and individuals.
3. Agree that the amounts per expenditure type may be varied to
ensure that the funding is appropriately utilised and spent within
the allowable grant criteria provided by Government.

The HSF funding of £12,511,156 will provide both direct and
preventative support with respect to the costs of food, fuel and
essential items to vulnerable families and individuals in Leeds
between 1st April 2025 and 31st March 2026.

Over 38% of the funding will support households in receipt of
Council Tax Support. This will ensure that households on the lowest
incomes in the city receive support directly, without the
requirement for an application process. The proposed allocation
provides that pensioner households in receipt of Council Tax
Support but not Pension Credit, thereby on a low income but
ineligible for a Winter Fuel Payment, receive a higher level of
support. This proposal acknowledges that the delivery period
includes the winter months which is a time of significant financial
pressure, in part because of higher utility costs. These pensioner
households will have received Winter Fuel Payments prior to winter
2024/25 and may have relied upon this support when budgeting for
their winter bills. Households with children have also been
allocated a higher award of £125. The rationale for this
relates to the higher household expenditure for families.
Additional financial pressure is also known to impact families
during school holiday periods where children are eligible for free
school meals during term time and the majority of these households
will be in receipt of CTS. The baseline award for all other CTS
recipients will be £50.

Funding support through the existing Local Welfare Support Scheme
and applications for Discretionary Housing Payments will enable
more households in financial hardship to receive support. The
funding will also enable Children’s & Families and Public
Health to provide support to their priority groups.

Housing support via Housing Leeds and Leeds Housing Options will
ensure that tenants in exceptional circumstances and those
threatened or experiencing homelessness can receive support in line
with the DWP’s criteria.

Third sector support will enable locally based and targeted
assistance to be delivered, including to people who do not wish to
engage with the Council.

Leeds City Council’s procurement and legal teams reviewed and
agreed the approach for funding of the third sector organisations
in 2023 for HSF4. This approach remained the same for both HSF5 and
6 and will continue for HSF7.