On 2 September 2024 the Government announced that the Household Support Fund (HSF) would be extended for a further six months, from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025, with a further £421m of funding, the fund has been made available to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England to support those most in need
The Household Support Fund is there to help low-income households, including families, pensioners, unpaid carers, care leavers and disabled people. It provides immediate help for those who are struggling. This could include help with energy, water, broadband and phone bills, as well as other essentials such as food, clothing, and hygiene products. The fund can also assist with transport-related costs such as car repairs, buying a bicycle or paying for fuel.
The Application Scheme has been allocated approximately 15% of the total HSF6 fund.
To be eligible for a payment from the application based scheme, you must satisfy the following criteria:
You must live in the Dudley Borough
You must have less than £2,000 household savings
You must have a household income of less than £40,000 per year, or £30,000 per year for a single occupancy household
You must not have already received a payment from 1st April to 21st January.
Application scheme closed
The Household Support Fund application scheme has now closed.
What happens next
We assess all applications to ensure eligibility and accuracy of information using a range of data sources.
We will issue a successful award on a first come first served basis. This will take approximately 2 – 4 weeks to process. A £200 payment will be made to the bank account provided on your application. Please do not contact the council during this time to chase up your application.
FAQ - 22 Jan 2025 Household Support Fund 6 application process
The government is clear that the money is to provide crisis support for households in the most need with the cost of essentials.
As in previous rounds, the majority of the Household Support Fund of £2.6m has been distributed through key council services and organisations within the voluntary sector. The majority of the fund helps people most in need via frontline services.
Dudley’s Household Support Fund cash applications process only uses around 15 per cent of the Household Support Fund.
The online application process opened at midday on Wednesday 22 January. The link remained live until 4.27pm.
Once the process is complete, we will have approved a £200 grant, on a first come, first served basis, to 1968 applications.
We received 1921 online applications. The rest of the money was reserved for us to support customers who had difficulties claiming.
Yes, there were two.
The first was fixed within 4 minutes of opening. The second, which only affected some people, took 45 minutes to fix.
People who received cash through the Household Support Fund since 1 April 2024 were not entitled to receive the £200 payment in this round. This was publicised in advance.
For the first time, previously successful applicants were not able to apply online. This will have created frustration amongst those who applied again, but it meant that the process was quicker for those who were able to apply. It also enabled us to keep the scheme open for longer.
Anyone who moved home after April 2024 into a property where a previous resident received the Household Support Fund was unable to apply on the online system. However, they would have been given the message on the website that should this error occur to contact the Dudley Council Plus call centre.
We intend to contact all of these residents today (23/1/25). Should they meet the criteria, they will receive the £200 grant.
In total we received 137 call back requests with queries about having difficulty applying for the fund. The process was designed to cater for this. We saved enough grants to respond to each email and provide every eligible candidate with the £200 payment.
