Devon County Council (DCC) has been awarded funding of £8,926,693 by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for the seventh Household Support Fund (HSF7) which runs until 31 March 2026.
The HSF7 must be spent or committed by 31 March 2026 and cannot be held over for future usage. As HSF7 is a finite fund: once the money has been spent the fund will close (therefore, this could potentially be earlier than 31 March 2026).
This HSF7 allocation covers the DCC administrative area of Devon. You can contact Torbay Council or Plymouth City Council for information concerning their respective HSF7 approach.
The fund is designed to provide rapid short-term financial support to address economic vulnerability and financial hardship. It should be used to support households who are struggling to meet their food, energy, water and other essential living needs.
It can also be used to support households with essential costs related to those items and with wider essential costs. In exceptional cases of genuine emergency, it can additionally be used to support housing costs where existing housing support schemes do not meet this exceptional need.
Deployment of household support funds
As the DWP payment to Devon will be in arrears and subject to DCC submitting timely management information returns, Devon must have a robust policy and process in place to meet the DWP requirements.
DCC has worked with district or city councils and other voluntary and community partners to identify households experiencing financial hardship. The approach to deploying the HSF7 is on the following basis.
Free school meal (FSM) holiday food vouchers
If a child or young person in a household qualifies for FSMs in term time then, currently, they automatically qualify for free school meal holiday vouchers.
The vouchers ensure families of children or young people eligible for free school meals during term time, are also able to purchase food over the holidays to replace the meals a child or young person would have received during a school day.
Households currently in receipt of free school meals are eligible for a supermarket voucher to the value of £15 per child per week of the school holidays, to help pay for groceries over the break. The vouchers will automatically be distributed to eligible households prior to the holidays.
More information about applying for free school meals.
Team Devon district or city council hardship schemes
Each district council will provide a HSF7 hardship scheme; the latter will be finalised via the respective elected council’s governance and decision-making procedures; ensuring open, transparent and informed local decision-making in this regard.
All district or city councils will be provided with a funding allocation based on the universal credit uptake in their respective areas, enabling each of them to either:
- provide direct and targeted financial help and assistance to households who they have identified via data held as eligible against their criteria and who are vulnerable and struggling financially to secure food, water, energy, essential needs and, in exceptional circumstances, housing costs (for example, rent arrears prior to being in receipt of appropriate housing benefits)
and/or
- to operate an open application based scheme
For any direct and targeted work, the district or city council will use appropriate and accessible datasets, which are compliant with data protection requirements, to proactively identify vulnerable and in need households; making contact with them and offering ‘one-off’ financial assistance.
In finalising their approach in this regard, districts will consider a wide range of low-income households who are, or who are likely to be, struggling financially.
Such consideration may include households of pensionable age, disabled people, carers, single working age households, and households with other relevant characteristics.
Visit the cost of living and support pages on your district council’s website to find out more about support in your local area. As plans are finalised the following webpages will be updated:
Citizens Advice Devon Energy and Water Relief Scheme
Citizens Advice Devon will receive Household Support funding, so that they can continue to support people who are struggling to meet their energy and water needs.
Support comes in the shape of fuel and water voucher payments, and longer-term relief of fuel poverty through initiatives that help homes become more energy-efficient, and that help people stay warm at home – heated throw, body warmer or rechargeable hot water bottle, for example.
The scheme runs until 31 March 2026 but may close earlier if the fund has been dispersed fully.
DCC early help
Families on low incomes can get help with food and utility costs, which early help is administering locally.
Through this fund, early help is able to provide a support grant to eligible households. Referral applications can be made via a professional working with the family concerned. The scheme runs until 31 March 2026 or may close earlier if the funds have been dispersed and are exhausted.
Food, Fuel and More
The County Council is pleased to be working again with Devon Community Foundation to provide Food, Fuel and More targeted grants to organisations working with vulnerable households and people most in need of support over the finding period (until 31 March 2026).
Grants will be used to alleviate immediate needs and help those who are struggling to afford food, energy, water and other related essentials, and be given to households that find it difficult to access support elsewhere, for example, via other support gateways such as district councils, Citizens Advice, school or community hub.
Communication
Communication will be released (via DCC and partners’ websites and communication channels) on the HSF7 allocation for Devon and the support gateways put in place to support households. Where appropriate, further direct, timely and specific communication to the individual households concerned will then follow nearer to actual implementation of the above initiatives.
Ongoing review
Following a review of the above actions and the subsequent confirmation of the funds being dispersed in the way described, and assuming HSF funds still remain available, a further review and deployment of the HSF will then be considered.