Local Welfare Assistance - Household Support Fund - Find a freedom of information request

Part A: Local Welfare Assistance

These questions specifically pertain to your local welfare assistance/provision (LWA) scheme. By LWA scheme, we mean a discretionary service which:

* provides grants to your residents when facing a crisis (these grants may take the form of cash, vouchers or the item itself, e.g. a cooker);

* has a claims process via which a member of the public can apply for support.

You have told us in a previous FOI response that Lincolnshire Council do not deliver a scheme, however if you did have a scheme operating in 2021/22 please answer all the questions below and we require information from the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022.

If you did not operate a scheme in 2021/22, proceed to Question 7.

Please do not include any figures pertaining to the Household Support Fund for Part A,

unless funding from the HSF was channelled into your LWA scheme for increased provision through that scheme.

1. What was the total spend on your scheme during 2021/22?

2. How many applications did you receive to this scheme in 2021/22?

3. How many applications were successful in 2021/22?

4. How much was spent on the provision of furniture and/or white goods in 2021/22? This includes both cash and vouchers for items and/or the provision of the item itself.

5. What percentage of your 2021/22 spend was funded by your core spending power (as opposed to additional Govt. funding provided I.e. Section 31 grants)

6. What is your budget for 2022/23?

Part B: Household Support Fund

These questions specifically pertain your allocation of the £500m Household Support Fund.

For clarity purposes we are referring to the fund announced by the Government here.

This first tranche of the fund was announced in the autumn 2021 and had to be spent by the 31 March 2022.

7. How much were you allocated from the Household Support Fund in 2021/22?

8. How much of this fund did you spend in 2021/22?

9. Could anyone apply to receive support from this fund or was it distributed based on certain criteria (e.g. eligibility to FSM?)

10. Please provide approximate percentages indicating what this fund was spent on

a. Targeted direct grants to recipients of the following benefits (please specify these below)

i. Free School Meals %

ii. Universal Credit %

iii. Council Tax Support %

iv. Tax Credit %

v. Discretionary Housing Payments %

vi. Other (please specify) %

b. Additional funding for your LWA scheme (as set out in Part A) %

c. Funding for third party Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations %

d. A new scheme to which members of the public could apply for support %

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

Part A

Lincolnshire County Council did not operate such a scheme in 2021/22

Part B

7. £5,454,685.20

8. £5,420,899

9. Support was given to School age children eligible for FSM, Early Years children eligible for Disadvantaged 2 year old funding or Early Years Pupil Premium. Vulnerable households could apply for support via preferred partner referrals to District Councils to receive support for food, energy and water, essentials linked to energy and water, wider essentials or housing costs.

10.a. i. Free School Meals 48%

vi. Payments to EY Children eligible for Disadvantaged 2-Year-old Funding and Early Years Pupil Premium 7%

d. Vulnerable households could apply via preferred partners to District Councils to receive support for food, energy and water, essentials linked to energy and water, wider essentials, or housing costs. 45%