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FOI request (FOIR-433361370)
£150 Energy Rebate & Household Support Fund in England
Requested Thu 30 June 2022
Responded Fri 13 January 2023: I am sending this request under the Freedom of Information Act to ask for the following information:
1. How many households in your Local Authority area are eligible for the £150 council tax rebate announced by DLUHC in March 2022?
For the avoidance of doubt, I am referring to households eligible for the scheme as per the following link:
a) Of these households, how many pay council tax by Direct Debit, and how many by other means? (e.g. cash / phone / cheque payments)
b) For households eligible for the £150 council tax rebate that pay for council tax by Direct Debit, how many have now received their £150 payment by July 1st 2022 and how was their payment processed? (i.e. transfer via BACS, postal cheque etc.)
c) For households eligible for the £150 council tax rebate that do not pay for council tax by Direct Debit, how many have received their £150 payment by July 1st 2022 and how was their payment processed? (i.e. transfer via BACS, postal cheque etc.)
2. Is your council one of the 152 authorities responsible for distributing the Household Support Fund? And if so, could you please tell me how many applications has your Local Authority received for Household Support Fund Payments between December 6th 2021 to July 1st 2022? Please can you provide this information on a month-by-month basis?
For the avoidance of doubt, I am referring to households eligible for the scheme as per the following link:
a) Of the applications made for the Household Support Fund payments between December 6th 2021 to July 1st 2022, what percentage of applications have been successful?
b) For households that have received the Household Support Fund payments between December 6th 2021 to July 1st 2022, how was their payment processed? (i.e. transfer via BACS, postal cheque etc.)
c) A breakdown of number of awards made by type of household (i.e. with children, pensioners)
d) A breakdown of number of awards made by purpose (i.e. energy and water, food, housing costs, other essentials)
e) What steps has your Local Authority undertaken to ensure that Household Support Fund payments are being used for their defined purposes?
Response
Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding. The department that held the requested information have been dealing with all government grants which have unfortunately has taken officers away from day to day duties.
1. a) 37,683 b) 22,214, paid by BACS c) 325, paid by BACS
Q2. With respect to the part of the below FOI request that relates to HSF payments, it is felt the request for information is being directed to the 152 county councils and unitary authorities to which the DWP funding was directly allocated – Hastings Borough Council was not one of these. East Sussex County Council (ESCC) had overall responsibility for the distribution of the fund. HBC only assisted ESCC to spend the money (as did Wealden, Rother, Eastbourne and Lewes councils and a number of voluntary sector partners).
The district and boroughs focused on Energy/Water and Food payments but did not administer any payments for 'housing costs' or 'other essentials'. Each council and voluntary organisation that helped to administer the fund had to report their expenditure details to ESCC separately. ESCC then collated all the information (along with their own) into a single management information return that was then sent back to the DWP.
Consequently we believe this part of your request will need to be directed to ESCC to deal with as only they have all the information needed to respond: www.eastsussex.gov.uk
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