Supporting people facing severe hardship to improve their financial well-being can significantly improve individuals’ well-being and life chances. It also has wider socio-economic benefits for communities, including reducing pressure on public services.
Councils have long highlighted that the HSF has wider benefits for their communities beyond the initial crisis payment. Councils routinely refer residents in crisis to wider services, including benefits advice, debt advice and health, housing, and employment services, to help address residents’ underlying financial, social and health needs. HSF can therefore act as a gateway to provide wider wrap-around support that can lift people out of the cycle of poverty and crisis.
Typically, people who apply to the HSF have exhausted all other support routes and have nowhere else to turn. Without help, many residents would be at risk of harm or escalating crisis, such as being forced to take on unsustainable debt, going without food, heating or other essentials, or becoming homeless. There are countless examples of how HSF-funded support has prevented people’s health from deteriorating, helped prevent homelessness, and helped people stay in education or start work.
For example:
- In the Northwest, a family were referred for support from the HSF due to extreme hardship during a particularly cold spell this winter. The house had no central heating and only a coal fire. But as the family could not afford to buy more coal, he house was “freezing cold”. The family’s teenage son, Jake*, was enrolled in college but was not attending. Support workers initially thought this was due to low motivation but discovered that Jake was too cold at home to study. Through the HSF the family were given a £150 voucher for food and £100 to purchase coal, as well as being provided with electric blankets and warm clothing. This helped the family get through the colder months and Jake started attending college again.
- A council in the South used the HSF to support Jane*, a vulnerable woman with health difficulties living in sheltered housing. Due to financial abuse, Jane had not eaten in several days and had no access to food or other essentials. Her support worker applied to the HSF to purchase vouchers to meet Jane’s immediate needs, and Jane was referred to wider specialist support services to avoid a repeat of the situation. The intervention prevented Jane’s situation from worsening, putting her at risk of illness and requiring increased health and social care support.
- In the Northeast, the HSF was used to support Mary*, an elderly lady whose boiler had broken down and had no heating or hot water. Mary has a chronic health condition and had recently been in and out of hospital. But as her boiler was only 4 years old, she did not qualify for other national help. The council provided Mary with emergency temporary heaters and swiftly sent around an engineer to repair the boiler. Without help, Mary would have faced a winter without heating, which would have likely caused a deterioration in her health condition and resulted in further hospital stays.
*Names have been changed to protect residents’ privacy.