Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to answer of 8 July 2022 to Question 26876 on Cost of Living Payments: Housing Benefit, what assessment he has been made of (a) how many people receiving housing benefit only are not receiving the £650 cost of living payment and (b) the sufficiency of the Household Support Fund to reach all those requiring additional support.

(A) How many people receiving HB only are not receiving the £650 Cost Of Living payment

Approximately 100 thousand working-age HB claimants were not in receipt of a qualifying benefit or Tax Credit and so would not receive a cost of living payment of £650 paid in two lump sums of £326 and £324.

There are a further 370 thousand pensioner HB claimants who were also not in receipt of any qualifying benefit but will receive the £300 Cost of Living payment paid through an increase to the Winter Fuel Payment.

(B) What assessment has been made of the sufficiency of the Household Support Fund to reach all those requiring additional support.

£842m has already been allocated to Local Authorities in England through the Household Support Fund to support those in need for the period October 2021- September 2022. Almost 9 million awards were given to those in need between October 2021 and March 2022 alone. A further £421m is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund from October 2022 to March 2023, taking the total funding for this support to over £1.2bn.

Local Authorities have the ties and local knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided to their local communities, and they have the discretion to design their own local schemes to best meet local need, within the parameters of the grant determination and guidance for the fund.

The Household Support Fund is just one part of a wider package of government support for the cost of living now totalling over £37bn this year.