How Hartlepool Borough Council will spend nearly £1m to support families, school children and the elderly

Hartlepool Borough Council chiefs has decided how to use £993,000 allocated to the local authority as part of the third round of cash from the Government’s “household support fund”.

The latest instalment is earmarked to deliver projects from October until the end of March 2023.

A total of £480,000 is to be used to support families by providing £60 in food vouchers to be distributed to all children eligible for free school meals aged 2-19.

A council report estimates this will reach about 8,000 children and young people,

Elsewhere £270,000 will be used to provide payments or food vouchers of £60 to around 4,500 pensioners in receipt of Local Council Tax Support (LCTS).

The current Local Welfare Support Scheme is to receive £40,000 to support applications for aid with energy, food, household essentials and goods.

Meanwhile the Housing Advice Team will receive £15,000 to help take applications from residents struggling with exceptional housing costs.

Hartlepool Food Bank and The Bread and Butter Thing food programme will receive £10,000 each and £44,000 each will go to the Citizens Advice Bureau and Advice at Hart to provide fuel vouchers.

Finally £15,000 is to go to Anglian Water, to help tackle water poverty, with £5,000 going towards West View Advice and Resource Centre to provide access to household essentials to support during the cost of living crisis.

The proposals were approved by the council’s finance and policy committee.

Labour’s Cllr Brenda Harrison, while labelling the support in place as “brilliant”, warned that “more and more” people are going to be needing such help.