There have been four tranches of the Household Support Fund (HSF) so far, we are referring to the fourth tranche. We believe Devon County Council was awarded £10,129,752 as part of this tranche.
1. Please provide us with a copy of the management information return you are required to provide to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for tranche four of the Household Support Fund.
Please find the management information return here: HSF4MI Return
Some information has been greyed out as it is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data).
The Council cannot disclose personal information, if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the UK General Data Protection Regulation. In this instance release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore the information is withheld.
2. Please provide a breakdown of how tranche four was spent:
(a) Targeted Grants (by targeted grants we mean any direct grants/proactive support given to households that did not need to be applied)
Proactive support £2,408,531.62
(b) Free School Meal Holiday Vouchers
£4,283,395.00
(c) Direct applications to the scheme (this means the amount that was open to application, but not through your local welfare assistance scheme)
£7,058,112.12
(d) Local Welfare Assistance Scheme
Devon County Council does not run a Local Welfare Assistance Scheme, therefore this information is not held.
(e) Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations
£930,724.32
(f) Advice Services
£48,217.50
(g) Other (please clarify)
£341,388.48 – cannot be clarified
3. (a) If you accepted applications to this fund how many did you receive?
The Council deploys the Household Support Fund (HSF) through a number of separate gateways and we do not know how many applications have been received as we are not asked to collect this information for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
(b) How many applications were successful?
37,948 applications were successful.
4. Excluding funding given to local welfare schemes or third-party organisations, how much of the HSF did you spend on helping people with furniture and appliances?
The DWP asks us to collate information on how the HSF is deployed, broken down by the following types of support: a) Vouchers, b) Cash Awards, c) Third Party Organisations, d) Tangible Items. We do not drill down any further so we do not have the data and therefore do not hold this information.
5. How much did you spend on:
(a) Vouchers
£5,269,674.43
(b) Cash awards
£3,037,396.10
(c) Third party organisations
£6,461,25.54
(d) In kind furniture support
The DWP asks us to collate information on how the HSF is deployed, broken down by the following types of support: a) Vouchers, b) Cash Awards, c) Third Party Organisations, d) Tangible Items. We do not drill down any further so we do not have the data and therefore do not hold this information.
(e) In kind support for other purposes
The DWP asks us to collate information on how the HSF is deployed, broken down by the following types of support: a) Vouchers, b) Cash Awards, c) Third Party Organisations, d) Tangible Items. We do not drill down any further so we do not have the data and therefore do not hold this information.
(f) Other
£4514.00
6. How much do you plan to spend on free school meal vouchers in the holidays in 2024/25? If HSF is not renewed in September, will you continue with the vouchers for the second half of the year? And if so, how will you be funding it?
£2,152,592.00. There are currently no plans finalised for when HSF5 ends.
7. Did you take on additional staff for HSF 4 and if so are these staff likely to be retained for HSF 5?
No
8. To what extent does the short notice of the availability of funding inhibit the planning and delivery activity of HSF (e.g. internal finance and policy decision making, resource requirements, engagement with internal departments and external partners)?
It inhibits matters greatly, especially in relation to the ability to develop longer-term strategies and partnership, which are more likely to provide a greater legacy as opposed to short terms plans, which start then stop and then start again. We are therefore more reactive, implementing shorter term ‘sticking plaster’ responses to people’s predicaments. This has been fed back to the DWP on numerous occasions via the network of local authorities.
9. When HSF 5 ends, what do you expect the impact to be on:
– Resources – Yes a greater demand on resources is likely, for example demand for Adult Social Care and Children’s Services help and support, within the Authority, but equally within the wider system, e.g NHS and the VCSE Sector.
– Local Welfare Provision scheme – No as no money currently exists for such schemes other than HSF funding. However, certain schemes will likely see an increase in demand – such as Council Tax Relief and Discretionary Housing.
– External partner agencies – Yes the wider system will feel any impact, as mentioned above.
– Communities – Yes communities will feel the impact unless support equivalent or greater to HSF is provided.