Household Support Fund has helped millions of families through cost of living squeeze – but it needs renewing and reforming

The Household Support Fund has helped millions of families in England with their food, energy and water bills, and household essentials since its introduction in 2021, but its effectiveness has been hampered by chaotic and declining funding which needs to be put on a firmer footing, according to new research published today (Thursday).

The report, Renew and Improve – an output of ‘Safety nets: social security in a devolved UK’, funded by the Nuffield Foundation – looks at how the Household Support Fund (HSF), which is now in its seventh wave of funding, has helped families through the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

An estimated 80 million individual awards will have been given out by the end of the current wave of funding in March 2026, at a total value of £3.7 billion distributed to millions of households across England.

 Families with children have been major beneficiaries of the Household Support Fund, receiving almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of expenditure between October 2021 to September 2023, with the exact proportion of support varying across each wave according to shifts in guidance.

But despite the evident need for the fund, its six-monthly value has fallen in real terms over time – from £507 million between October 2021 and March 2022, to £369 million between October 2025 and March 2026.

Local authorities’ ability to use the fund to deliver effective support for families has been further hampered by the last-minute and short-term nature of funding renewals of the Household Support Fund. With some funding renewed with just a few days’ notice, local authorities have had little time to plan how to allocate a shrinking pot.

A consequence of the Household Support Fund’s chaotic funding, and the challenges local authorities face in administering the scheme, is a lack of local awareness. In interviews with nearly 200 low-income parents and carers in the UK, many said they were unaware of what help their council offered.

But despite these problems, interviews with local authority staff highlighted how the Household Support Fund enabled them to give vital assistance to families in crisis.

The upcoming Spending Review is an opportunity to ensure the long-term future of the Household Support Fund and rectify administrative issues so that more support is provided to families that need it, says the Foundation.

The Government should start by committing to fund the Household Support Fund until at least the end of the Parliament and maintaining its value in real-terms.

The efficacy of the Household Support Fund can also be improved by shifting away from vouchers, which accounted for the majority of awards between October 2022 and March 2024, to cash payments. Vouchers are not universally accepted, limiting their usefulness, and both local authority staff and HSF recipients interviewed about the scheme said that cash gave recipients more choice over how to get support.

Alex Clegg, Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said:

“The Household Support Fund has been a vitally important scheme, helping millions of families with unexpected costs and rising bills through the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

“But its success has been hampered by chaotic and declining funding, and a lack of public awareness. This risks households in need of urgent help being left unaware and unable to access support.

“The Government should use the upcoming Spending Review to guarantee a long-term settlement for the Housing Support Fund and ensure that local authorities are able to direct support to where it’s needed most – helping families to navigate crisis situations.”