Minutes

31      COVID-19 LOCAL SUPPORT GRANT - The Directors: Learning, Skills and Culture and  Children and Community Resilience submitted a joint report seeking approval to further extend the COVID-19 food voucher provision, through the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) COVID-19 Local Support Grant, to include the summer holiday period and to deliver a welfare assistance scheme alongside this for vulnerable households in North Lincolnshire.

The council recognised the impact that COVID-19 has had on families and households in many different ways and had in place a range of financial support mechanisms for those on low incomes. 

During the period of the pandemic, decisions had been made to support children and families by offering supermarket vouchers to a number of vulnerable groups over school holiday periods, including children entitled to Free School Meals. This had been funded primarily through the DWP COVID-19 Winter Grant and local support schemes.

In order to provide support for a broader range of vulnerable households, the approach taken in North Lincolnshire had been a targeted one, including those on the lowest incomes with children between the ages of 0-18 and care leavers. When implementing the DWP COVID-19 Winter Support Grant in December 2020, a welfare assistance process was established in addition to the voucher scheme to provide immediate support with food, fuel, and warmth for any eligible household.

On 21 June 2021 the DWP announced details of a further extension to the DWP COVID-19 Local Support Grant, allocating North Lincolnshire a total of £501,239.46 for the period up to and including 30 September 2021.

Resolved – That the proposal to use the COVID-19 Local Support Grant to provide help to the most vulnerable with food, warmth and fuel, as set out in Option 2, paragraph 3.2 of the report, be approved.