DWP extending hardship fund is welcome – but we need concrete, rapid actions to end poverty crisis

This week’s belated announcement of yet another temporary extension to the household support fund (HSF) was very welcome. With less than a month on the clock for the existing tranche of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) funding, local authorities as well as food banks had been desperate for definitive information.

Earlier in the day, a coalition of charities, including the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN), had begun a day of action calling for an immediate extension of the fund. This followed the news that the central government lifeline would likely continue temporarily through the winter but that any DWP announcement might not come until budget day, a month after the current fund expires.  

However, this must surely be the last time that a last-minute, poorly designed ‘sticking plaster’ response to the UK’s ever-deepening poverty crisis can be viewed positively. On Tuesday (3 September), the Trussell Trust released eye-watering statistics on the scale of hardship among the UK’s nearly seven million universal credit claimants. Nearly half of this cohort ran out of food over the previous month and didn’t have enough money to buy more. Meanwhile 1.6 million universal credit claimants were forced to use a food bank over the last year. It’s clear that six months of funding worth £421 million, alongside £79 million for the devolved nations, is a drop in the ocean.  

The new Labour government has already taken some positive steps to reduce the hardship resulting from austerity policies including the establishment of a child poverty taskforce (although the removal of the two-child limit remains elusive). With timely and unrestrictive DWP guidance, the much-needed reprieve for the HSF will undoubtedly help local authorities to deliver temporary crisis support, bolster local advice services, provide support in the holidays for children in receipt of free school meals, and inevitably boost the help provided by overstretched food banks through a challenging winter.  

But what of the people who can’t access support because they can’t meet sometimes unfathomable local authority eligibility criteria, or who find local authority application systems impenetrable, or feel too ashamed to seek out help? The £421m distributed to English councils isn’t going to help people suffering in silence who are unable to pay their bills, are going hungry and are having to leave the heating off over the winter months.  

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What of the pensioners who are facing the removal of the winter fuel payment because they haven’t claimed pension credit or don’t know they are eligible or who aren’t quite poor enough for this benefit’s threshold? And what of sick and disabled people who cannot work and are being pushed into destitution by a threadbare social security system that ignores their plight? The new government makes no secret of prioritising working households, yet the Trussell Trust’s research finds that no less than 68% of working households on universal credit have gone without essentials in the last six months.  

And what will happen in a few short months when, yet again, this funding pot reaches its expiration date? This week’s DWP press release refers to the government looking into “sustainable support” and the “root causes of poverty”. The HSF’s extension will be short-lived, and no time can be wasted in the coming months. “Exploring options” must lead to concrete and rapid actions to significantly increase incomes, whether through social security payments and/or real Living Wages. Ultimately, everyone should be able to access a Living Income and a Healthy Standard of Living for All as part of a strong and fair economy.  

The previous government arguably used the first household support fund in October 2021 to mask the removal of the temporary £20 uplift to universal credit. Any strategists looking to build food insecurity out of the system must look at Family Resources Survey data. Severe and moderate food insecurity in households on universal credit fell by 16% because of this short-lived, cash first intervention. Reviewing the universal credit system, as promised in the Labour Party manifesto, will, of course, be valuable, but the evidence is already clear – universal credit payments are not enough for people to get by.  

Increasing social security payments and ensuring that a five-week wait for universal credit doesn’t push people into debt and hardship through benefit deductions is critical. So too, is permanent crisis support via cash payments in every UK local authority, not only in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Only 11 years ago, the Discretionary Social Fund provided the funding needed for local authorities to run local welfare assistance schemes.  

Removing the two-child limit, sanctions, the benefit cap, the bedroom tax, and No Recourse to Public Funds status are also vital changes that must be incorporated into any anti-poverty strategy. And as social security payments worth £23bn remain unclaimed, the government should immediately prioritise large-scale investment in existing local advice services. Meanwhile, as promised in the manifesto, Labour’s commitment to establish the 2010 Equality Act’s socio-economic duty could well provide a framework to ensure the reduction of poverty at a local level. 

Reversing the damage caused by austerity is unquestionably a Herculean task especially when faced with a £22bn black hole, but it is possible. Leaving large swathes of the population struggling to afford bare essentials, while pushing food banks and other support services past breaking point, surely doesn’t make moral or economic sense. Urgency is paramount and the Labour government’s positive steps to reverse the tide of poverty will hopefully turn into giant strides by the time the next household support fund comes to an end in six short months. This funding should be extended permanently so that local authority crisis support is embedded within a fit-for-purpose social security system that will sooner, rather than later, ensure adequacy of income for all.  

Sabine Goodwin is director of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) 

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