Nottinghamshire Household Support Fund (HSF) Phase 4

Applications into the current phase of the Household Support Fund are now closed.  The Government has recently announced a six -month extension to the HSF scheme. However, no guidance regarding the new phase has been released. All future updates will be published here.  Please contact HouseholdSupportFund@nottscc.gov.uk with any queries.

Applications into the fund are now closed. If you were issued a Unique Reference Number, but have not yet applied, you will be receiving a letter and grocery voucher in the post shortly. This letter will look slightly different to standard letters issued by Nottinghamshire County Council. This is due to the letter being created by HUGGG, who are our voucher supplier.

The letters will still have the Nottinghamshire County Council logo attached, and you can contact  HouseholdSupportFund@nottscc.gov.uk or our Customer Service Centre on 0300 500 8080 with any concerns regarding the legitimacy of any letters you have received.

The vouchers will need to be activated in order for you to use them. Please follow the instructions on the letter to see how to do this. You will not need to enter any personal information to activate the voucher.

If you have received a letter that was intended for the previous occupant of your address, you can return the letter to Nottinghamshire County Council by writing ‘return to sender’ on the envelope and placing it back into a post box.

Example letters

Household Support Fund example letters [PDF]

Household Support Fund Phase Four

The fourth round of the Household Support Fund is worth £11.2 million in total, and has been provided by the Department for Work and Pensions to cover a full year (April 2023 to March 2024) and will once again be administered by Nottinghamshire County Council in partnership with local district and borough councils.

Summer and Winter support payments, both worth around £100 per household (based on number of eligible household occupants), will continue to support families with children entitled to Free School Meals as well as other households and individuals struggling with rising costs.

Families in receipt of 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 seasonal support payment.

If families 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 family that is not in receipt of 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.

The first set of payments have been made through summer, and any application that has been made before 30 September will be registered to automatically receive the Winter Support Payment without needing to reapply. Any application made after 30 September will only be eligible for the winter payment and will not be backdated for the summer payment.

It is also important to be clear that this support is a one-off payment in summer and in winter and is not linked to school holidays, therefore it should not be expected to arrive during any school holiday. 

To see other support that may be available to you, please visit the Government's Cost of Living Hub.

Frequently asked questions

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. All letters have now been sent out.

If you have not had your letter please contact HouseholdSupportFund@nottscc.gov.uk   

If you are not in receipt of either FSM or Pension Credit, then you will need to be referred into the fund by a professional referrer, if they feel it is appropriate to do so. Please contact a professional that you are working with or your local district or borough council and ask them to make a referral into the fund on your behalf, they will assess you in accordance with the criteria, and then make the referral if it is considered appropriate to do so.  

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

We will be accepting applications for the Summer Support Payment until 30 September. Any application made before 30 September will be added to a list to receive an automatic Winter Support Payment (in line with the table below), when it is due, you will not need to apply again. Any application made after 30 September 2023 will only be eligible for the Winter Support Payment and this will not be backdated. 

 

All Winter Support Payments will now be made before Christmas, regardless of when your Summer Support Payment was made.

Due to the large number of payments that we will be making we are not able to give you an exact date that your payment will be made, but the Winter Support Payments will begin to roll out in November and all payments will be made by Christmas.

All payments will receive an additional £30 per household, this is not per person.

The value of your Winter Support Payment will depend on how much your Summer Support Payment was for. Please see the table below.

Value of Summer Support Payment

Value of Winter Support Payment

£90

£120

£120

£150

£150

£180

£180

£210

£210

£240

£240

£270

£270

£300

£300

£330

No, payments will be automatically issued, and we are unable to change the date that the payments will be made.

No. The fund is designed to make two support payments to help households over a longer period and to encourage households to plan ahead.  

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

  

Please allow up to ten working days for the team to get back to you, as this is the standard time to investigate and provide an outcome.  

If ten working days have already passed then we can look into this further for you, however we will require all your details to do so, including your email address, home address and phone number.  

If you received a bank transfer in Phase Three, 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.  

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.

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