Erdington Families Networking Group - Household Support Fund

Our guest speaker will be answering questions about the new round of Household Support Fund hardship grants.

The Household Support Fund (HSF) hardship grants summer scheme is now open for applications from eligible households across Birmingham.

Help for Birmingham households experiencing financial hardship has been developed as part of Birmingham’s wider Household Support Fund programme.

There is a new team at Compass Support who will be administering it. The Early Help team will not be involved except to signpost to it.

They can be contacted on 0121 748 0897 or 0121 747 5932 or by emailing HSFErdington@compass-support.org.uk

This will be an opportunity to get answers to your queries from the team.

What support is available?

A one-off hardship grant payment of up to £200.00 is being made available to help eligible households across three groups (households with children under 18, households of working age adults and households of pensionable age adults) who are experiencing financial hardship. The fund is intended to support households to cover essentials such as food and energy (gas, electricity, and water) costs.

Eligible households with children under 18 or of working age adults must be identified as experiencing hardship, and have confirmed their entitlement (e.g., in receipt or an application is in progress) to receive one or more of the following means tested benefits:

• Council Tax Support

• Housing Benefit

• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)

• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

• Income Support

• Pension Credit

• Social Funds (Cold Weather Payment, Funeral Payment, Sure Start Maternity Grant)

• Tax Credits (Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit)

• Universal Credit

Households of pensionable age adults (aged 66 on or before 30.09.2022) must be identified as experiencing hardship in order to apply.

Please note, households identified as having No Recourse to Public Funds are entitled to apply to this scheme for support.

If you have previously applied to receive a hardship grant funded by the Household Support Fund winter scheme you are able to apply for a grant from the summer scheme, provided your household is identified as eligible within the criteria listed above.

How are grants paid?

In most circumstances, successful grant awards are paid via BACS into the applicant’s bank account within 7 working days. All BACS payments are made directly by BVSC (Birmingham Voluntary Service Council, as the scheme’s financial administrator). Alternative arrangements may be put in place if you do not have access to your own bank account.