DWP announces extra £41m for Scottish councils to help more people during cost of living crisis

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced an extra £421 million will be available for local authorities across the UK to help households with energy bills, food costs and other daily essentials during the cost of living crisis.

Scotland will receive an additional £41 million as part of the Barnett Consequentials, for a total of £123 million from this support fund so far.

The latest round of cash help from the Household Support Fund opened on October 1 and to access it, DWP is urging people to contact their local council and ask what help is available in their area.

However, there’s been no indication yet on how the Scottish Government has distributed across its 32 local authorities. This latest round of funding runs until March 31, 2023, and the Devolved administrations have been allocated a total of £238 million to their budgets, meaning the total value of this household support to date stands at £1.5 billion.Commenting on the additional support, Victoria Prentis, Minister of State at the DWP, said: “The Household Support Fund has been an important [UK] Government support scheme for many of those in need over the past year, and I’m very pleased that our decision to extend it means it will continue to help people with the costs of essentials - including food and energy - this winter. “Millions of low-income families will have also received at least £1,200 from the Government to help with the cost of living, and our Energy Price Guarantee is helping households across the country heat their homes as the nights get longer.” The fund comes on top of extensive UK Government support already in place to help with the cost of living this winter.Cost of living payments worth £650 are being paid to around eight