Household Support Fund

The Household Support Fund 4 (HSF4) is provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Government to local authorities to support families with children and individuals most in need. The HS4 Fund scheme runs from April 2023 to March 2024.

Further help with the cost of living can be found on the GOV.UK website and also Community Action Derby.

How does the scheme work?

Financial support will be provided in the following ways for eligible Derby households:

Free school meals

Derby city households with children receiving free school meals will be supported during the term breaks. This will continue to be distributed as supermarket food voucher codes, through schools as part of the HSF4 scheme.

Over 14,500 households have benefitted from supermarket food voucher support over school term breaks since April 2023.

Food vouchers

The spring/summer online voucher application form issued £500,000 of food vouchers to over 4700 families in need.

The autumn/winter online food voucher application form will open for applications in December 2023 through to the end of March 2024, or until all the allocated £500,000 funding is awarded to eligible households.

Welcome hubs

The fund also provides financial support for up to 50 local community services and organisations across the city to further develop a community led cost of living support network that includes a warm welcome, hot meal, help towards energy costs as well as help accessing other cost of living support. More details will follow shortly.

During winter 2022/23, the hubs received over 29,000 visits from adults and over 4,500 children.

Energy support

The fund provide access to financial support for help with energy costs in the form of energy vouchers. This support will be available from the end of October through the Warm Welcome Hubs across the city. A list of Warm Welcome Hubs is available on the Community Action Derby website.

Since April 2023, HSF4 has issued over 1600 energy support fund applications have been processed, issuing awards for over £77,000.