Household Support Fund (HSF)

Families with children who get free school meals will receive a supermarket voucher for each child during the school holidays.

This support can be worth over £190 per year per eligible child. If you have already claimed free school emails for you child you do not need to take any action and will receive this support automatically. If you think you are eligible but have not received any vouchers, please speak to your child’s school in the first instance.

If you have not applied for free school meals you will not automatically get this support even if your child is eligible. To make sure you don’t miss out please apply for free school meals.

You will receive a text message from ‘Huggg’ or an email from [email protected] with your e-voucher instructions before the start of every school holiday. Information on how to use you voucher can be found on the Huggg website.

If you have a question about your voucher, call 01582 510346 and select option 2.

If you are a care leaver you will be eligible for grocery vouchers. The vouchers will be given to you by your personal advisor (PA).

A care leaver is a young person aged 16 to 25 years old who:

• has been ‘looked after’ at some point since they were 14 years old
• were in care on or after their 16th birthday

If you are a care leaver having difficulties with the vouchers, or think you’re eligible for support but haven’t received a voucher, contact your personal adviser (PA) or call 01582 547820.

If you're in crisis or have an emergency, please see our list of emergency contacts.

The Household Support Fund has been provided by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to help local authorities support residents during the cost of living crisis. Below is a breakdown of the funds allocated to Luton Council since October 2021 and information on how the funding has been spent.

HSF 1: 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022

Luton Council was allocated £1,829,274 by the DWP to support vulnerable households during the period 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. In line with DWP guidance we provided pro-active targeted support and application based support to households meeting the specific criteria detailed below.

Group 1
Description

• Households with children eligible for free school meals
• Care leavers
• Households living in temporary accommodation

Group 2
Description: households identified through data held by the council as experiencing financial difficulty to apply for support
Amount: £479,379
Est number of households*: 1,582

Group 3
Description: residents who wished to self-refer via our local welfare assistance scheme
Amount: £22,705
Est number of households*: 380

Administration
Amount: £71,690
Est number of households*: N/A

Total spend
Amount: £1,829,274
Est number of households*: 9267

HSF 2: 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022

Luton Council was allocated with £1,829,274 by the DWP to support vulnerable households during the period 01 April 2022 to 30 September 2022. In line with DWP guidance we provided pro-active targeted support to households meeting specific criteria detailed below.

Group 1
Description: households with children eligible for free school meals
Amount: £1,145,500
Est number of households*: 6560

Group 2
Description: care leavers
Amount: £44,631
Est number of households*: 643

Group 3
Description: pensioners eligible for pension credit
Amount: £500,000
Est number of households*: 4,273

Group 4
Description: pensioners not entitled pension credit
Amount: £81,690
Est number of households*: 1,631

Administration
Amount: £57,453
Est number of households*: N/A

Total spend
Amount: £1,829,274
Est number of households*: 13107

HSF 3: 01 October 2022 to 31 March 2023

Luton Council was allocated with £1,829,274 by the DWP to support vulnerable households during the period 01 October 2022 to 31 March 2022. In line with DWP guidance we provided pro-active targeted support and application based support to households meeting specific criteria detailed below.

* Households may have received multiple awards throughout the duration of the scheme. For example, families in receipt of free school meals will have been issued with vouchers in October, December, February and March. Additionally, Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 are not mutually exclusive, therefore households may receive awards in one or more of the groups.

Group 1
Description: households with children eligible for free school meals
Amount: £1,024,755
Est number of households*: 6432

Group 2
Description: care leavers
Amount: £88,340
Est number of households*: 303

Group 3
Description: self-referral application scheme
Amount: £548,305
Est number of households*: 3103

Group 4
Description: tangible items via VCS organisations
Amount: £75,580
Est number of households*: 273

Administration
Amount: £92,193
Est number of households*: N/A

Total spend
Amount: £1,829,173
Est number of households*: 10,111

HSF 4: 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024

Luton Council has been allocated £3,658,584 by the DWP to support vulnerable households during the period 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

In line with DWP guidance we have identified groups for targeted support and also have a self-referral application scheme in operation. Details of how the council intends to spend the funding is publicly available on the Luton Borough Council website.

Full details of the spend and number of households supported will be published at the end of the funding period.

See our Luton, supporting you webpage, which include information on local support available.

For more information on other cost of living support available, visit GOV.UK - Cost of living support.

For information and support on finding employment please visit our help finding a job page or visit the finding a job GOV.UK