Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing emergency relief funding through the Housing Support Fund for local authorities ahead of winter 2022.

£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.

The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills ahead of Winter 2022. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October.

This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost-of-living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.