The Household Support Fund (HSF) is a key programme of discretionary support designed and administered at the local level but financed by the central government. In recent years, it has helped local authorities in England support ‘vulnerable’ households, including funding free school meals provision outside of term time, dispensing welfare benefits and debt advice (for instance, through contracting with organisations such as Citizens Advice), and providing everything from white goods, electric blankets food parcels to air fryers to low-income households.
Reflecting its origins as a temporary measure introduced at the outset of the cost-of-living crisis, a feature of the HSF has been a repeating cycle of short-term funding – typically 6-month periods – often coupled with “last-minute” renewals in response to ongoing need.
Ahead of the March 2024 budget, there was intense lobbying from a wide coalition of actors seeking an extension to HSF funding, including a request from the Local Government Association for at least 12 months of new funding; a summit bringing together key organisations lobbying for extension; an open letter to the Chancellor from over 120 organisations pressing for continuation of HSF; a Westminster Hall debate where MPs made the case for renewal; and lobbying by companies providing services to councils or NGOs administering HSF activity, particularly around cash payment solutions or voucher systems.
It seems highly likely that this pressure was instrumental in the government eventually opting to extend HSF for a further six months. ITV News Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana posted on social media just days before the March 2024 Budget that sources were indicating there would be no last-minute renewal of HSF despite the extensive lobbying, only to report on the morning of the Budget itself that the Treasury sources were now suggesting an HSF extension was back on the table. In announcing a surprise six month extension the then Chancellor Jeremy Hunt purported to be in listening mode, telling the House of Commons “Having listened carefully to representations from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Trussell Trust […] among others, I have decided that with the battle against inflation still not over, now is not the time to stop the targeted help that it offers”.
In providing a fifth wave of HSF funding 30th September 2024, Hunt avoided an immediate political storm for the Conservatives around its pre-election Budget, but he also placed longer-term decisions on HSF into the next Parliament. Was this a carefully laid trap for the Labour Party, who now have to make a decision on the scheme’s future in their first 100 days in power?
At present renewal of HSF is low on the political agenda. None of the main parties’ General Election manifestos mentioned the scheme and, since the election, key anti-poverty campaign groups have focused their lobbying on more prominent issues such as the two-child limit. However, because no funding has been set aside for the scheme from October onwards, the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves will have to make a difficult decision on whether to close the HSF or find an additional and unplanned £1 billion of spending a year to keep it going.
It will be a difficult task to find such a sum within the tight fiscal rules that Reeves has outlined, particularly with so many competing calls on whatever money is available. But, as the 30th September cut-off approaches, the coalition of actors that pushed for an extension to previous waves of HSF will make similar calls. This date coincides with the party conferences season, increasing the risk of negative headlines should Reeves opt not to extend the scheme or fail to provide clarity over its future.
Notably, Reeves’ first speech to the Labour Party Annual Conference as Chancellor is scheduled exactly one week prior to the end of HSF wave 5. Members of the ‘HSF lobby’ will be out in force, including many Labour local councillors and potentially Labour’s increasingly powerful regional leaders. In the November 2023 Autumn Statement the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, pressed the previous government on its failure to extend HSF and the North East Mayor, Kim McGuiness, told reporters shortly after her election in May 2024 that it was “dreadful that this fund will be ending when thousands are suffering in a cost of living crisis”.
It is likely that key members of the ‘HSF lobby’ will want to push for a funding extension coupled with wider reform that recognises that HSF in its current form supports vital services but falls far short of being a well-designed discretionary local welfare scheme. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has already called for HSF to evolve into a permanent scheme that can meet this need alongside a reformed national-level social security system; Child Poverty Action Group have made a similar call. This echoes the views of local authority staff we interviewed, who saw the HSF as providing valuable support but ultimately a sticking plaster response that cannot plug the gaps in an inadequate national social security system.
The Labour government has committed to reforming national level social security and to developing an ambitious child poverty strategy. But it also needs to urgently consider the role of well-designed local crisis welfare in its wider plans for reform and, in the meantime, safeguard the important backstop HSF is currently providing. Significantly, a decision on the latter will need to come before the Autumn Budget on 30th October. As the NAO recently noted, the rapid cycling of HSF waves across multiple localities has produced much innovation and learning as local authorities have grappled with the challenge of delivering new services in short time-frames, worked in partnership with others, and shared lessons about programme design with each other. The government should not let this learning go to waste.
Kit Colliver is a Research Associate in the York Law School.
Jed Meers is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of York.
John Hudson is a Professor of Social Policy and Academic Director of the University of York’s policy engagement unit The York Policy Engine.
Neil Lunt is Professor of Social Policy and Associate Dean (Internationalisation) at the School for Business and Society at the University of York.
Sticking plaster support: the Household Support Fund and localised assistance in the UK welfare state by Jed Meers, Kit Colliver, John Hudson, and Neil Lunt is available open access on Bristol University Press Digital.
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