Household Support Fund extended for another six months as DWP figures show 4.3m children living in poverty

The temporary renewal of the Household Support Fund (HSF), was announced in the spring budget at the last minute after intensive lobbying from campaigners and local authorities. The chancellor’s six-month extension to the £800m support fund for the poorest households, used by councils to distribute vouchers for food, energy and water bills, will provide only a temporary fix for families facing destitution, charities have warned. 

Thomas Lawson, the CEO of charity Turn2us, said: “We hear from hundreds of people every week needing immediate help with food, household bills and essential items … The temporary extension of the fund highlights starkly how our social security system fails to prevent people from sliding into poverty.”

Shaun Davies, chair of the Local Government Association, said: “It is disappointing that we had to wait until the very last minute for an extension, and that it is only for a short period. Three-quarters of councils expect hardship to increase further in their area over the next 12 months.”

The fund has enabled local authorities this year to allocate an estimated £300m to provide holiday food vouchers for families with children on free school meals, about £185m to support local food banks and £227m on issuing energy and water bill vouchers.

Save the Children says that figures recently released by the DWP in the Households Below Average Income report show that the number of children being brought up in relative poverty has risen by 100,000 since the previous year, and has now reached 4.3 million. It is using the relative poverty after housing costs definition, and it says 30% of children in the UK are poor using this measure. The latest figures cover the financial year ending in 2023.

The Child Poverty Action Group notes that: “In addition to the rise in relative child poverty (measured as living on less than 60% of today’s median income) the DWP’s figures show an increase in the number of children in absolute poverty (measured as living on less than 60% of what the median income was in 2010). Since absolute poverty should always reduce over time as living standards generally rise, the increase is a clear warning that not only are more children being dragged below the relative poverty line, but living standards for children are falling over time, their hardship deepening.”