Spring Household Support Fund
Household Support Fund Winter Payments
The Government has announced a further £421m to extend the Household Support Fund Scheme to help people with food and energy bills over winter.
We are currently awaiting guidance from Government before we can start to administer the scheme and make payments.
The Government announced in the Spring statement that they were extending the Household Support Fund for 22/23 to help vulnerable people and families.
The scheme in Manchester has provided one off payments to support vulnerable residents as follows:
- £50 payments to working age residents in receipt of Council Tax Support
- £50 payments to households with someone who is under 25 and classed as a Care Leaver
- £50 payments to residents who are classed as Severely Mentally Impaired for Council Tax purposes
- £160 payment to pension age residents on Council Tax Support*
* Some residents who are pension age only received £50 rather than £160. This is because they have a partner living with them who is working age. We are using the same benefit rules that we use to assess Council Tax Support and Housing Benefit when deciding whether a couple is classed as pension age or working age. Under these benefit rules, a couple with mixed age partners where only one partner has become pension age will continue to be treated as a working age couple until both partners in the couple reach pension age. This means that for this scheme we will also be treating them as a working age couple even if one partner has had a birthday which means they are eligible to claim State Pension.
To support children and families, we provided two payments to children eligible for Free School Meals. These payments were issued by schools in Manchester:
- £15 payment per pupil for the May 2022 half term holidays
- £40 payment per pupil for the Sumer holidays
Other parts of the fund
£300,000 was provided through the community and voluntary sector.
Payments
If you were eligible and you pay your council tax by Direct Debit, your payment was made into the bank account used to pay your council tax. These payments were made on 15 July 2022.
Those who pay their council tax in cash (by PayPoint, standing order/ bank transfer or online) or have no council tax to pay were sent a letter with a Post Office Payout voucher which can be cashed at any local Post Office branch.
The deadline for cashing the vouchers was 10 September 2022.
If you need to contact us about your Household Support Payment, you can ring us on 0161 234 5678, Monday to Friday between 9am and 4.30pm.
We are no longer able to reissue vouchers. If you had a problem with cashing your voucher please contact us and we can discuss alternative payment options with you.