The DWP funding has been shared among local authorities including Birmingham to “help households with food costs and energy payments”
Struggling families will receive £200 payments to help with essential living costs when a Government-funded scheme restarts in just weeks.
The Department for Work and Pensions added £421 million to its Household Support Fund, which is shared among councils across England to be distributed to local people who are identified as being in need.
The Birmingham City Council allocation from the Household Support Fund is being handled by Birmingham Voluntary Service Council. It is being used to provide £200 ‘hardship grants’, which are one-off payments going straight into bank accounts to help with food and energy costs.
Organisers said the city’s funding is not connected to, or affected by, the Section 114 bankruptcy notices issued in response to the council’s £1 billion financial crisis.
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Applications were paused in January so BVSC could deal with all the existing requests for help.
It said: “BVSC will be distributing grants of up to £200 to eligible Birmingham households, currently facing financial hardship, with the funds intended to help households with food costs and energy payments.
“Please note that the enquiries will reopen in March 2025. If you are not currently on the waiting list, or it has now been 12 months since your household last received a grant payment, you will be able to submit a new enquiry once enquiries resume in March 2025.”
This is the sixth and, as it stands, the final round of the Household Support Fund, which will end on March 31. Any news on an extension of the fund beyond that is likely to form part of the Chancellor’s spring statement on March 26.
The DWP has indicated it will not be providing any more direct cost of living payments like those given out from 2022 to 2024 to pensioners and people on means-tested and disability benefits.
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