I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act to kindly request information relating to your Local Welfare Assistance Scheme.
These questions specifically pertain to your local welfare assistance/provision (LWA) scheme.
By LWA scheme, we mean a discretionary service which:
• provides grants to your residents when facing a crisis (these grants may take the form of cash, vouchers or the item itself, e.g. a cooker);
• has a claims process via which a member of the public can apply for support, that is, they are not targeted at specific cohorts.
Please do not include information about the Household Support Fund (HSF) unless you used HSF funds for your local welfare assistance scheme.
All questions are specifically referring to support provided via the LWA scheme which was previously set out on https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/home/council-tax-and-benefits/benefits/local-welfare-provision and we require information from the period 1st April 2024 – 31st March 2025.
1. What was the total spend on your scheme in 2024/25?
2. How many applications did you receive to this scheme in 2024/25?
3. How many applications were successful in 2024/25?
4. What percentage of your entire scheme (including food, fuel and furniture support) was delivered via:
• Cash
• Vouchers
• In-kind provision of goods
5. How much was spent on the provision of furniture, white goods and furnishings (in-cluding flooring and window coverings) in 2024/25? This includes cash, vouchers and the provision of the item itself.
6. What percentage of your furniture and appliance spend only was:
• Cash
• Vouchers
• Provision of the item itself
7. Our research finds that, on average, 37% of Local Welfare Assistance is spent on furniture and white goods. If your authority does provide furniture and white goods, can you explain the positive impact this has on peoples lives? If you do not, can you explain why furniture is not part of your LWA offering?
8. (a) What percentage of your 2024/25 spend was funded by your core spending power (as opposed to additional Govt. funding provided via Section 31 grants, such as the Household Support Fund)
(b) What percentage of your 2024/25 spend came from the Household Support Fund?
(c) What other sources did you use to fund your LWA scheme in 2024/25 and what per-centage of the scheme did each source make up respectively?
9. What is your budget for 2025/26?
10. What percentage of your 2025/26 budget is funded by your core spending power?
If this budget is not 100% core funded, how is the remaining budget funded?
11. The current tranche of the Household Support Fund is due to end on 31 March 2026. If no further funding is provided by central government after this date, how will this affect the funding for your Local Welfare Provision scheme in 2026/27?
• We will spend more on our Local Welfare Scheme
• It will have no impact, spending will remain at the same level throughout the year
• Our local welfare provision budget will be reduced – please provide estimated per-centage reduction
• There will be no local welfare provision – we will close our scheme on 1 April 2026