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 £330,000 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
The recent changes announced for the Winter Fuel Payments will ensure everyone over the State Pension age in England and Wales with an income of, or below, £35,000 a year will benefit from either £200 or £300 to towards their heating bills for winter.
Pensioners don’t need to take any action as they will automatically receive the payment this winter, and for those with incomes above the threshold it will be automatically recovered via HMRC.
Pensioners can also still access support with food and energy through our warm Welcome Hubs across the city.
The Household Support Funding which previously covered low-income pensioners who narrowly missed out on the Winter Fuel Payment, will now be reallocated to strengthen other areas of support available under the fund.
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.
- 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.