Our latest report on Local Welfare Assistance and the Household Support Fund reveals that a record number of people were unable to access crisis support from their local council.
More local authorities than ever, 48, closed their local welfare assistance scheme in 2024/25, leaving 17.9 million people without access to vital support for food, fuel, and furniture in a time of crisis.
Most local authorities in England have used the Household Support Fund to prop up their Local Welfare Schemes with 66% of all LWA funding coming from HSF, including 25 local authority LWA schemes that are 100% funded by HSF. The HSF was created by the previous government in 2021, to support families through the cost-of-living crisis with £1bn of funding given to local authorities and the devolved governments each year. Over a third of local authorities, 37%, reported that they did not use the HSF to provide furniture and appliances and only 1% of the whole fund was used for this provision.
The announcement of the multi-year Crisis and Resilience Fund in the Spending Review to replace the HSF is hugely welcome. We now have a real opportunity to embed Local Welfare Assistance into the social safety net and ensure that everyone who needs emergency help can access it. However, there is still much to get right when imagining the future of local welfare in England. All the data was gathered from Freedom of Information requests sent to all local authorities regarding both LWA and HSF, as well as FOIs sent to the devolved nations for their comparable schemes.
Claire Donovan, Director of End Furniture Poverty, said: “We have our strongest opportunity yet to build a local authority crisis support system that meets adequately supports everyone at their time of greatest need. We now need to ensure that the new Crisis and Resilience Fund enhances the benefits of Local Welfare Assistance, rather than simply replace it with an inferior model.”
If you would like to discuss the report or ask any questions, please email info@endfurniturepoverty.org
Read the full report below.
