Nottinghamshire Household Support Fund (HSF)
Phase 7 of the Household Support Fund is not yet live, this page will be updated once we have started accepting the applications.
We will never use text messaging to request information. Fraudsters may try to pass themselves off as Nottinghamshire County Council. To check the validity of any letter or phone call, please contact us. We also encourage you to check any communications with family, friends or someone else you trust.
If you are in receipt of benefits related Free School Meals or Pension Credit, then we will be contacting you and inviting you to apply. Letters will be posted throughout May/June 2025.
If you are not in receipt of the above but feel you are still eligible then please contact a professional that you are working with (Housing Officer/Social Worker etc) or your local District or Borough Council and they will be able to determine your eligibility to the fund, if you are eligible then they can make a referral for you.
The seventh round of the Household Support Fund is worth £9.9 million in total, and has been provided by the UK Government to cover a period of a year (April 2025 to March 2026) and will once again be administered by Nottinghamshire County Council in partnership with local district and borough councils.
The support payments, worth around £110 per household (based on number of eligible household occupants), will continue to support households in receipt of Pension Credits and households with children entitled to Free School Meals as well as other households and individuals struggling with rising costs.
Households in receipt of Pension Credits or benefits related Free School Meals, or with early years children in receipt of an equivalent benefit, will once again be contacted directly by the County Council with details of how to apply for a support payment. Letters will be sent to those eligible households throughout May and June. If you believe you are eligible but have not received your letter by the end of June, then please contact the Household Support Fund team.
If FSM or households in receipt of Pension Credits have applied during the previous phase and gave permission to keep their details, then they will not need to apply again, as the payment will be issued automatically to them in the same format that was requested before.
Any household that was referred in by a professional in the previous phase of the fund will need to be referred in again as no automatic payments will be made for referrals.
Any household that is not in receipt of Pension Credits or Free School Meals, but is in need of support, can contact their local district or borough council and ask to be referred into the Household Support Fund.
It is also important to be clear that this support is a one-off payment for the six-month period and is not linked to school holidays, therefore it should not be expected to arrive during any school holiday.
As the fund is available for a year, those who receive a Summer Support Payment (01 April – 30 September 2025) will automatically receive a Winter Support Payment. Where applications are received on or after 01 October 2025 only the Winter Support Payment will be provided.
To see other support that may be available to you, please visit the Government's Cost of Living Hub.
We have used data gathered from DWP and the School Census to enable us to contact all residents who are eligible for benefits related FSM/Pension Credit by letter.
Letters will be sent over the month of November, if you are in receipt of FSM or Pension Credits and have not received your letter by December, then please contact the Household Support Fund Team at HouseholdSupportFund@nottscc.gov.uk
Any household that is not in receipt of Pension Credits or Free School Meals, but is in need of support, can contact their local district or borough council and ask to be referred into the Household Support Fund.
Any household that was referred in by a professional in the previous phase of the fund will need to be referred in again as no automatic payments will be made for referrals.
Households that are eligible include those
- in receipt of benefits related free school meals or early years equivalent
- that are in receipt of Pension Credits
- that have been assessed by a professional and are in need of support
The fund comes to a close on the 31 March 2026, however applications will be closed on 28 February 2026 to allow time for payments to be processed. The specific application deadline may change as we approach the end of the phase depending on how quickly the fund is spent.
No. Automatic Winter payments will be issued in the same format as was chosen for your Summer payment. If you need to change the bank account details please contact the Household Support Fund team and we will be able to assist you. Householdsupportfund@nottscc.gov.uk
If you are in receipt of Free School Meals or Pension Credits and received a bank transfer in Phase Six, and you gave us permission to retain your details, then we will be issuing a payment to the same bank account as before. You will not need to apply.
Please contact Householdsupportfund@nottscc.gov.uk if you need to change your bank account details or have any further queries. Please provide all your details when doing so, including your full name and address.
Automatic payments will not be made to those who received a bank transfer through a professional referral into the Household Support Fund.
Any household that was referred in during the previous phase of the fund will need to be referred in again.
Unfortunately, once the voucher has been activated, or posted to you, we cannot change the supermarket, and it must be redeemed at the supermarket originally selected.
Unfortunately, we cannot reissue vouchers after they have expired or have not been activated in the time window.
If you can provide us with your bank details, name, address and email address, we can look into it and respond within ten working days
For this phase of the fund we are not issuing support payments that are aligned with any school holidays. Instead, we are paying a one-off lump sum in Summer to cover all Summer holidays, and a one-off lump sum in Winter to cover all Winter holidays. These are referred to as the Summer and Winter Support Payments respectively.
We contacted those who we found to be eligible throughout the phase, on numerous occasions, if you have not been contacted, unfortunately you were not eligible. We are not able to backdate any payments from any previous phases of the fund, as each fund is classed as a separate fund and previous funds are now closed.
Further Support
If you need further help or support, find out more about accessing benefits and other government support that you may be eligible for.
