Household Support Fund
Derby City Council has been allocated £3.920 million in Household Support Funding (HSF) from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to support residents struggling with the cost of living. Over the next twelve months, this funding will directly support those most in need by helping with essentials like food, energy, and essential household items.
The Household Support Fund will run until 31 March 2026, delivering targeted support through several initiatives.
Further help with the cost of living can be found on the GOV.UK website and also Community Action Derby.
How does the scheme work?
Support is provided for eligible Derby households most in need:
Free school meals
Over 16,600 Derby city households with children receiving benefit-related free school meals will be supported with supermarket food vouchers providing 1,070,000 meals during the school term breaks between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026.
Food vouchers
The food voucher scheme supports eligible households in financial crisis with supermarket food vouchers towards the cost of living.
The online summer food voucher application is now open and will remain open until September 2025 or until all the £210,000 allocated funding is awarded.
Only one award will be made for each eligible household.
Voucher values:
- £25 for a single adult household.
- £50 for a multiple adult household.
- £100 for a household with children under the age of 19.
We’re working with several community partners across the city where you can go for support with making an application. More details about the Warm Welcome Hubs will be available shortly at Community Action Derby.
Warm Welcome Hubs
The fund also provides financial support for over 40 local community services and organisations across the city to further develop a community led cost of living support network that includes a warm welcome, hot meal, support towards reducing energy costs as well as help accessing other cost of living support.
During winter 2024/25, the hubs received over 34,600 visits from adults and over 2,900 children.
More details about the Warm Welcome Hubs can be found at Community Action Derby,
Energy support
The fund provides access to financial support for help with energy costs in the form of PayPoint energy vouchers.
The energy scheme will open in September 2025 for applications through to the end of March 2026 or until all the allocated £195,000 funding is awarded. This support is available to vulnerable households and those in financial crisis through the Warm Welcome Hubs across the city.
Pensioner support
Under the new HSF scheme, Derby City Council has identified up to 2000 households with pensioners who are not in receipt of pension credits – and therefore will not receive the winter fuel payment – but are in low-income households in receipt of Council Tax Support or Housing Benefit.
These households will automatically receive a direct payment of £100 from the Council by February 2026. People in this category do not need to do anything, payments will be made directly to their bank accounts.
Pensioners can also access support with food and energy through our warm Welcome Hubs across the city.
Other support
The fund is also being used to deliver targeted support through several new initiatives designed to address key areas of concern for Derby’s communities.
We will be using the funding to help deliver support to eligible households including:
- Essential household items aimed at reducing energy bills.
- Leaving care food voucher support.
- Financial Wellbeing Workshops.
- Targeted crisis support.
If you would like more information about what support is available to help with cost of living-related issues, visit Community Action Derby’s online hub to learn more about upcoming events, free resources and essential information.