Plan unveiled for £2.6 million cost of living help for Wolverhampton households

The City of Wolverhampton Council has revealed plans to invest £2.6 million of government money to continue helping households in the city through the cost of living crisis.

The previous government announced the final round of the Household Support Fund in March and it is due to end in the autumn.

The council has revealed how it will build on its work of the last few years to continue to help families cope with the cost of food, energy, housing and household essentials. The focus is on continuing to build sustainability of current initiatives in communities and financial resilience for residents. 

Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Simkins said:

‘We’re as committed as ever to helping our residents cope with the cost of living and even though the former government announced the final round of support was due to end in September, we’re ensuring the sustainability of crucial initiatives and services.

‘We asked the people of our city to tell us where the real pressure points still are for them and how we can best help.

‘Our resulting plan continues to be delivered as a partnership with our communities and valued organisations to not only see us through to the end of the current funding, but to build financial resilience to help our residents in the long-term, as we’ve done over the last few years.’

The distribution of the final round of the HSF focuses on targeting support where is it needed most and providing universal access to advice information and support, while helping people reduce debt and maximise their income, so reducing dependency on crisis services and building vital financial resilience.

The plan includes:

• Expanding community shop network with the opening of four more shops and support for existing ones, which helps residents reduce levels of food insecurity, save money, access healthy and nutritious food and build their own financial resilience

• Provide small grants for schools and educational settings to ensure children have access to food before and after school where needed.

• Continuing to support children in the school holidays to access food. 

• Grants to Community and Voluntary Groups - continuation of support for trusted organisations to identify financial vulnerabilities and support needed by residents to meet essential daily living costs. There are over 80 organisations working with local communities, one for every area of the city

• Support tenants to move on from temporary accommodation and into affordable accommodation

• Continuing our support for care leavers

• Support for people living with long-term health conditions and disabilities, including children who have SEND

• Continuing to tackle bed poverty through the Good Night Project

• School Uniform Match funding, partnership with Wolverhampton Credit Union to support families in meeting the cost of school uniform, parents to set up match funded saving schemes

• Funding advisory services which will include welfare rights officers to help residents to access missing benefits 

     Find out more about all support available for cost of living on our dedicated web pages www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/cost-of-living-support