The Government has announced that an additional £421 million has been made available to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund (HSF) for a further 6 months, from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025 to meet immediate needs and help those who are struggling to afford household essentials including energy and water bills, food, and wider essentials.
The Department of Works and Pensions have provided us further Household Support Fund (HSF) funding to allow us to provide financial support to households who haven’t previously received a HSF payment, aren’t in receipt of social benefits and therefore haven’t received any of the cost of living payments made by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Support available
The scheme can help with short term living costs such as food, gas electric, water, household bills and clothing (this is not an exhaustive list). Please also visit GOV.UK – Cost of living support page to find out what support is available to help with the cost of living. This includes income and disability benefits, bills and allowances, childcare, housing and travel.
The scheme will also sign post you to other sources of advice and support to ensure that you get all the assistance you may be entitled to including Welfare Benefits and Debt Advice to help address your long term needs, this is before any decisions are made.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the scheme you must be:
- A resident of the Fylde area – please visit GOV.UK – to find your local council
- Experiencing financial hardship and not have enough resources to meet your immediate short-term needs.
Restrictions
The scheme does not cover:
- Any requests for items that are not essential for example debts incurred by gambling or loans/credit cards, overdrafts, HP etc
- Applications from those with sufficient income, savings, capital and assets
- Requests for household items where these are the responsibility of the landlord
- Rent arrears and/or deposits unless meeting exceptional need
- Please note you can apply more than once during the duration of this round of funding, however applications will not be accepted within a 3 month period and we will request evidence that the funds awarded previously have been used for the intended purposes.
What information will you need to include?
We will need the following information:
- Where you live
- Full household details
- Your circumstances
- Your income
- All applications must be supported with bank statements for all adults in the household and for all accounts held – these must be for one full month – showing transactions in and out of the account and must be dated within the last 2 months. Screenshots showing the bank account details only will not be accepted but pictures of bank statements may be submitted.
- If you do not provide complete bank statements your application will not be considered
- If you pay your energy bill by direct debit we will require a copy of the front and back page of your most recent bill showing:
- balance owed
- account number
- confirmation of what type of meter you have installed.
- If you have arrears on your energy bills we will require a copy of the bill showing the arrears, payments you have made towards these arrears and payment details for your supplier
- Evidence of any gambling on bank statements provided will be investigated further as awards may not be made where there is evidence of gambling.
- What support you need and why the support is required – please give a full explanation of your circumstances giving a full in depth explanation, it is not adequate to simply put “increase in household bills”.
Fylde food banks
Phone: 01253 727455
Email: info@fylde.foodbank.org.uk
The Annex
United Reformed Church
St George’s Road
St Anne’s on Sea
FY8 2AE
Citizens Advice Bureau
Citizens Advice OfficeMoor StreetKirkhamPR4 2AU
Tel: 0808 175 5550
Preston Care and Repair
- Boiler repair/service
Email: housinggrants@fylde.gov.uk
