Household Support Fund
The Household Support Fund - Round 5 - is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions and follows on from the £13.39m Norfolk received from the Government in April 2023, which we used to support people over the last year. We successfully drew down all of the funding from this phase and we have used what we learnt to develop our new targeted approach, focused on providing help to the widest groups of residents needing support.
Further government help can also be found on the Government's Cost of Living Hub (opens new window).
Apply for support
The Household Support Fund is money given to Norfolk by the Government to help people who are struggling with everyday costs. You cannot apply directly to the Household Support Fund, but you can apply to the support schemes it funds.
About the Household Support Fund
The Household Support Fund is £6.69m the Government has given Norfolk to support residents who are struggling with the cost of living. This includes support for single households, families with or without children, older people and disabled people. This funding runs from April 2024 to September 2024.
We are adding an extra £0.435 million to the fund so that we can reach out and support a wide range of households in need.
Our scheme will:
- Give families flexibility and choice in our support by providing a monthly cost of living voucher for families eligible for free school meals. Running from April to October, this will support families to budget and give them choice, helping them to plan for birthdays and holidays, or offset against other bills
- Provide grants to voluntary sector organisations to enable them to support families who find themselves in crisis and need immediate support
- Give funding to grass roots community organisations so they can offer emergency small cash or energy bill payments directly to vulnerable households in their communities
- Give the Client Hardship Service extra funding to provide people with reused household items, emergency food/energy and to support people with grant applications
- Provide funding to District Councils to identify and support vulnerable households who are struggling with the cost of living
- Enable all Norfolk libraries to continue to offer free hygiene packs with essential toiletry and sanitary products
- Give funding to Adult Learning to expand their programme of money management, cooking on a budget and other related courses