The Household Support Fund (HSF) was a UK Government scheme administered by local authorities to support households experiencing financial hardship.
The Household Support Fund helped people with the cost of living.
It provided support with:
The scheme ended on 31 March 2026.
If you need help with the cost of living, you can apply to the Crisis and Resilience Fund.
You can also find other support through the Council's cost of living services.
We have published information about the fund through Freedom of Information requests (FOI). You can find these in the FOI/EIR Disclosure Log.
Use the search box to search for Household Support Fund and Crisis and Resilience Fund.
Additional funding was made available during 2026 to support households reliant on heating oil who were experiencing financial hardship due to rising fuel costs.
The tables below show how Household Support Fund money was distributed across different types of support during each funding period.
The total allocation for this period was £2,683,881.90. We received 5,697 applications. 2,039 were successful and 3658 were unsuccessful.
| Delivery method | Spend | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Vouchers | £1,907,308.25 | 71% |
| Cash awards | £277,891.97 | 10% |
| Third party organisations | £47,863.70 | 2% |
| Tangible items | £114,517.05 | 4% |
| Other in-kind support | £85,344.81 | 3% |
| Admin | £148,281.85 | 6% |
| Underspend | £102,674.27 | 4% |
The total allocation for this period was £1,522,795.52. We received 5,774 applications. 2,210 were successful and 1149 were unsuccessful.
| Delivery method | Spend | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Vouchers | £939,555.15 | 62% |
| Cash awards | £218,408.83 | 14% |
| Third party organisations | £115,156 | 7% |
| Tangible items | £107,429.14 | 7% |
| Other in-kind support | £6,839.51 | 1% |
| Admin | £59,730.37 | 4% |
| Underspend | £75,676.52 | 5% |
The total allocation for this period was £1,522,795.52. We received 2,352 applications. 1,203 were successful and 3,564 were unsuccessful.
| Delivery method | Spend | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Vouchers | £1,256,152.32 | 83% |
| Cash awards | £56,202 | 4% |
| Third party organisations | £139,057 | 9% |
| Tangible items | £18,348 | 1% |
| Other in-kind support | £22,103 | 1% |
| Admin | £30,933.20 | 2% |
| Underspend | No underspend | 0% |