Three million funding help for struggling Warwickshire residents to meet household costs through winter

Financial help is available for Warwickshire residents who would otherwise struggle to pay food, energy and water bills during the autumn and winter months.

Warwickshire County Council has been allocated £3.47million from the Government's £500 million Household Support Fund grant pot for local authorities nationwide to cover the period from now to March 31 next year.

At least half of the total funding is ring fenced to support families with children, with the remainder being made available to other households genuinely in need of support.

Priority support is being offered to families with children eligible for benefits related free school meals during school holidays as it is recognised that some families who are struggling financially have difficulty covering these periods.

Those eligible and registered children will automatically be receiving support towards food costs over the October half term via Huggg supermarket vouchers.

Warwickshire County Councillor Heather Timms, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Heritage & Culture said: “We welcome news of this Government funding which will enable us to offer targeted help to those who will struggle financially over the next few months.

“Last winter, we allocated £1.8m of government funding to make 51,000 awards to families and individuals in need so they were better able to meet food and fuel costs - this funding means we can do even more.

“The grant will bolster the work of our well-established Local Welfare Scheme. If you or someone you know is facing hardship right now, I encourage you to look online and get in touch with us, to find out what help there is.”

For information about wider support from the council and other services, go to https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/localwelfarescheme