The Govt's Household Support Fund designed to help financially vulnerable households with funding for essentials such as food, rent, utilities and furniture has been unavailable to applicants in some areas of the country after some Local Authorities "ran out of money.".

According to a report in The Observer (highlighted in The Guardian), 1 in 6 English local authorities ran out of funds in February with some having had no further funds available since December last year when the fund itself was set to last until the end of March this year.

The chief executive of the Citizens Advice Bureau, Dame Clare Moriarty, said that the CAB had seen "record levels of demand for crisis support" due to the cost of living "squeeze" and that this meant that many local authorities had to close their schemes early. She also called for targeted support via the benefits system for those in financial crisis.

The DWP has answered that the HSF is only one part of a wider package of support measures designed to help vulnerable households in crisis.