Purpose

The Executive Member for
Finance and Governance submitted a report for Executive consideration. The
report sought approval of the Household Support Fund Scheme (HSF) for the first
half of 2024/25 and sought delegated authority for the Director of Finance and
the Executive Member for Finance to make minor revisions/modifications to the
plan.

 

On 6 March 2024, the
Chancellor announced in the Spring Budget a number of
measures to provide further help through the extension of the Household Support
Fund (HSF) to support low-income households to cover the period 1 April 2024 to
30 September 2024.

 

Each Local Authority was
required to prepare a local scheme to determine how the funding provided would
be distributed. The amount allocated to Middlesbrough was £1,653,615.

 

Government guidance
required Local Authorities to clearly advertise the scheme to residents,
including publication on the Council’s website.

 

The value of individual
awards was to be determined by Local Authorities in accordance with the
parameters set out in the guidance.

 

The proposed scheme was
based on the Council’s previous successful HSF schemes and had been endorsed by
the Council’s Financial Inclusion Group and the relevant internal departments
including Children’s Services and Adult Social Care.

 

The scheme was designed to
support vulnerable residents and low-income households that included children,
pensioners, people with disabilities and other households who might be
experiencing financial difficulties brought about by the economic challenges.

 

The proposed scheme was set
out in Table 1 of the report. Estimated expenditure equated to £1.521m
(excluding administration costs).

 

In line with the guidance,
the Council was able to recover administrations costs to deliver the scheme and
these had been calculated at £0.132m. 
This equated to 8% of the scheme funding. The administrative costs were
in line with those of surrounding Local Authorities and also
aligned to costs incurred from the administration of earlier HSF delivery
plans.

 

Following implementation of
the delivery plan, any remaining funds would be allocated to Council Tax
accounts with a then current award of Council Tax Reduction (CTR) and where an
outstanding balance remained following the issue of a summons in 2024/25 financial
year. The Council also reserved the right to widen the group to those accounts
not in receipt of CTR.

 

The scheme had been
designed to provide support across the defined six-month period for awards.

 

The scheme would be subject
to periodic reviews to allow alterations to be made should the scheme
requirements need to change to keep pace with events.

 

Appropriate counter fraud
measures would be put in place to minimise risk in accordance with the
Council’s policies and procedures.

 

Decision

ORDERED

 

That Executive approve:

 

1.   
The Household Support Fund delivery plan
for 2024, which will be delivered between 1 April 2024 and 30 September 2024
and as set out in Table 1 (para 18) to target four main groups:

 

·        
Families with children and in receipt of
benefits.

·        
Pensioners in receipt of Council Tax
Reduction (CTR) and in receipt of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit (PCGC)  

·        
Singles/Couples in receipt of benefits.

·        
Application-based awards for residents not in
receipt of CTR or other benefits.

 

2.   
That any remaining funds following
implementation of the delivery plan (and administrative costs) are allocated to
Council Tax accounts, with a then current award of Council Tax Reduction (CTR)
and where an outstanding balance remains following the issue of a summons in
2024/25 financial year. This may also be widened to incorporate accounts not in
receipt of CTR. 

3.   
That delegated authority is provided to
the Director of Finance and the Executive member for Finance to make any minor
revisions/modifications to the scheme and make decisions in respect of any
remaining funds (as outlined in para 4) to ensure the scheme is distributed in
line with the guidance and within the defined timescales.