Council confirms £4m cost of living support

Rotherham Council has confirmed how it will spend more than £4.3m in government funding to offer financial support to people most in need.

At a cabinet meeting on Monday, councillors approved a spending plan for the latest allocation of the Household Support Fund (HSF).

The fund – £4.387m for the 2025/26 financial year – will be used to help residents with food, for energy grants, council tax relief and aid for care leavers and other vulnerable groups.

The largest portion of the funding – £2.687m – will be spent on supermarket vouchers for children eligible for free school meals to help families for 13 weeks of school holidays up to and including Easter 2026.

Families of children in receipt of free school meals will receive a supermarket voucher worth £15 per week, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

During the meeting, Councillor Victoria Cusworth said: “It is a real peace of mind for parents, because they don’t have any more money in the school holidays than they have when the children are in school.”

The council will also allocate £950,000 to top up local council tax support, which will reduce bills for more than 14,000 low-income households.

Half a million pounds will fund the council’s energy crisis support scheme, offering one-off £250 energy grants to more than 2,000 households, and £90,000 will be used to support young care leavers with the costs of food and energy.

A further £60,000 will be spent on helping local voluntary and community groups to distribute food hampers and support over Christmas and New Year, and £100,000 will go towards distributing household essentials to 4,000 households via food banks, social supermarkets, and community programmes.