Household support fund

The Household Support Fund aims to provide crisis support to vulnerable households, helping those most in need with the cost of essentials. The fund is provided by the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP).

Islington has been allocated £2,218,159.62 for 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025. 

Most of the Household Support Fund will be awarded to households with no need to complete an application.

Household Support Fund for carers - applications in January 2025

This phase of the fund will help residents who are recognised as a carer to someone who needs help with their care. We understand that people with caring responsibilities can face extra challenges because of their caring duties. You might have more heating, water or transport costs or have given up paid work to care for someone.

Who can apply

You must live in Islington as your main and permanent address and be a recognised carer and receive one or more of these:

• carer’s allowance
• a carer element - paid as part of your universal credit assessment
• a carer premium included in your Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit
• an ‘underlying entitlement’ to carer’s allowance - this could be where you are of state pension age and have made a successful claim for carer’s allowance but are not receiving it because your pension is too high or the carer’s allowance  stopped when you received your state pension
• some carer’s allowance in addition to your state pension (you must be of state pension age)
• a carer’s addition included in with your pension credit payment (you must be of state pension age) 
• a carer’s direct payment from Islington Council and you are in receipt of means tested benefits like universal credit or pension credit.

We will use DWP data and other systems to check that you receive at least one of these payments. Only complete an application if you meet the eligibility criteria.

If you think you meet these requirements, visit this page again in January 2025 to make an application. 

What you will get if you qualify

• A one-off payment of £200 per household paid into your bank account.
• Funding is limited, so there will be one award per household and awards will go to those who meet the eligibility criteria.
• You may be referred to other local support and advice services if we think they will be helpful to you.

Other support and benefits

If you care for someone for 35 hours or more and get a health or disability-related benefit, you could get extra benefit. To check what you could get, use our benefit calculator.

If you are regularly and substantially caring for someone for more than 35 hours a week but do not get a carers benefit visit GOV.UK's Carer's Allowance page.

Text message scams

Be aware of scam activity claiming to be about the Household Support Fund. We will not send you an SMS text message about HSF.