Household Support Fund for 2024/25 approved

Middlesbrough Council Executive has approved the Household Support Fund delivery plan 2024/2025.

The plan aims to support pensioners who narrowly miss out on receiving the Winter Fuel Allowance after the changes made at national level. Additionally, low income households with children will also be eligible for support. 

At the meeting of the Labour Executive, Councillor Nicky Walker, the executive member responsible for the programme, spoke about “the prioritisation of the Household Support Fund to support pensioners in Middlesbrough on low incomes, who will just miss out on getting the Winter Fuel Allowance this year.”

Thanking council officers for their hard work, she added that the plans particularly remembered “those people who just miss out on pension credit often because they’ve worked hard their whole lives and have a small work pension or a small amount of savings.”

She explained that pensioners who are in receipt of Council Tax Reduction, born before September 23, 1944, will receive a payment of £200 and those born between September 23, 1944 and September 22, 1958, will receive a payment of £150.

Cllr Walker outlined that there will also be an application process for residents who are not in receipt of Council Tax Reduction if they meet other criteria. For someone who receives attendance allowance, they can apply for £100 per household as “their illness or disability often means that they have higher heating costs or need additional electricity costs for equipment relating to their illness or disability.”

Alternatively, those who have an income as a single pensioner of less than £20,000, or a couple on less than £26,000, would be able to apply for a payment of £100.

She continued, saying “we wouldn’t be missing out vulnerable families which we have supported in previous years.” Households eligible for free school meals would receive an automated payment of £60 per child. Details on further support measures were published earlier this month.

Cllr Walker added: “there are quite a few authorities who have used their schemes to support pensioners who have missed out on the winter fuel payment… but from the figures I’ve seen, Middlesbrough seems to be one of the most generous.” Mayor Chris Cooke called it an “excellent scheme” and echoed Cllr Walker’s thanks to the officers who had helped to put it together. 

He said: “This outlines just how much support is going to people” and asked “when will the application process be made live, where will people go to get it?” Cllr Walker responded that it “will be publicised on the website”. She said that early November would apply to the schemes which required an application but “we are still working on all the time scales in relation to the various schemes.”

Mayor Cooke later commented, advocating the action taken as “I think local government is about solutions, rather than just sending off a letter, which we are also doing, asking for the reform of the winter fuel allowance.”

Cllr Walker added “A lot of councils have had motions about the winter fuel payment” but “what we’ve started doing in Middlesbrough is looking at how we can actually help our pensioners as much as we can and I think that’s the right thing to do.” The plan was then unanimously approved by the Executive. 

The money for this scheme has come from the extension of the Household Support Fund (HSF). The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, announced in September that the HSF would be extended from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. The grant amount allocated to Middlesbrough was £1.65m.

Cllr Walker stated that part of the reason for the extension was so that “councils can help pensioners who are struggling to pay their bills this winter”. She also commented that councillors should promote the scheme to people in their wards, and she highlighted promoting last year’s equivalent scheme on social media. 

For the latest information on the Household Support Fund in Middlesbrough, please click here.