Norfolk County Council is providing help with bills and others costs through the £13.4 million allocated as part of the Household Support Fund provided by the Department for Work and Pensions.
The Household Support Fund is money given to Norfolk by the Government to help people who are struggling with everyday costs. You cannot apply directly to the Household Support Fund, but you can apply to the support schemes it funds.
Norfolk support
The Household Support Fund is £13.39m the Government has given Norfolk to support residents who are struggling to pay their energy and utility bills. This includes support for single households, families with or without children, older people and disabled people. This funding runs from April 2023 to March 2024.
An extra £0.4 million is also being added to the fund so that we can reach out and support a wide range of households in need.
The scheme will:
- Give families flexibility and choice in our support by providing a monthly cost of living voucher for families eligible for free school meals. Running from April to March, this will support families to budget and give them choice, helping them to plan for birthdays and holidays, or offset against other bills.
- Provide the Norfolk Assistance Scheme with funding to cover expected demand for utilities and fuel support including the purchase of oil
- Provide funding to District Councils to identify and support vulnerable households who live in cold homes, are in rent arrears or council tax debt or who are experiencing higher energy costs due to health needs
- See us working with local voluntary sector organisations and charities providing grants for cash payments and energy bill payments
- Enable all Norfolk libraries to continue to offer free hygiene packs with essential toiletry and sanitary products
The Norfolk Assistance Scheme will continue to play a key role.
View the latest press release.
The Household Support funding follows on from the £6.67m Norfolk received from the Government in October 2022, which we used to support people over the winter period. We successfully drew down all of the funding from this phase and we have used what we learnt to develop our new targeted approach, focused on providing help to the widest groups of residents needing support.
