Household Support Fund 4 (HSF4)

Abri will utilise their HSF4 funding to bolster their crisis support fund which helps Abri Customers with fuel and food vouchers and essential white goods through the winter.

Vouchers and white goods would be distributed to residents via their Family Fund Portal.

Abri: Cost of Living hub (opens new window)

96% of Selwood properties are in Wiltshire. The HSF4 funding will support tenants, who may be moving in from previously being homeless, leaving care and those most in need with white goods, energy payments and food or shopping and will be administered by the existing Tenancy Sustainment Team.

Selwood Housing Society: Cost of living (opens new window)

Sovereign are using the funding to offer support to their customers in financial hardship across Wiltshire with a specific focus on isolated, low-income, and rural households in most need. They will be providing:

• emergency top up fuel vouchers
• helping hand shopping vouchers
• white goods grants

Sovereign Housing Association: Cost of living support (opens new window)

White Horse Housing Association will be supporting existing and new tenants who are either on benefits or in low paid employment and are struggling with the cost of living from their Discretionary Support Fund, boosted by HSF4. They offer help with essentials like food and fuel through the cold winter months.

White Horse Housing Association (opens new window)

Wiltshire Community Foundation (WCF) are distributing the funding through their 'Energy, Food and Community Support Fund (opens new window)' and 'Surviving Winter Programme (opens new window)' via Wiltshire charities and voluntary organisations.

WCF does not distribute funding directly to residents; they are making sure that key organisations have additional funds to offer advice, support and direct assistance.

See below information on all WCF HSF4 active schemes:

Energy, Food and Community Support Fund

Alabare Trowbridge & Salisbury - Alabare supports vulnerable and homeless people in Wiltshire with accommodation and opportunities to gain skills, confidence and experience to seek paid work. HSF4 funding will go towards bedding and supermarket vouchers for those living in their two temporary accommodation properties in Trowbridge and Salisbury.

Alabaré: Homelessness (opens new window)

Arts Together - Arts Together provide high creative arts activities for vulnerable older people in Trowbridge, Melksham, Devizes, Pewsey and Marlborough. The funding will support hot meals across their six weekly groups and provide accessible transportation for those who need it to get to their session.

Arts Together: Take Part (opens new window)

Community First - Provides a number of services to support and strengthen communities across Wiltshire. Working with their existing clients which includes - Young Carers families, Building Bridges individuals etc, they will support clients with grant towards fuel bills, food, transport costs, clothes or household equipment.

Clients in need should speak to their Community First keyworker in the first instance.

Community First (opens new window)

Crosspoint (Westbury) - Crosspoint is a volunteer-run local charity providing a range of services for disadvantaged people in Westbury and the surrounding area. Funding will be used to provide an emergency fund to support individuals with their fuel bills, transport costs and household items.

Crosspoint (Westbury) (opens new window)

Home-Start North Wiltshire - Across Devizes, Marlborough, Melksham, Calne, Chippenham, Corsham, Tidworth and Trowbridge. Home-Start North Wiltshire provide support to families with children under the age of five years of age who are struggling to cope for many reasons, including social disadvantage, poverty, mental health issues or disability. HSF4 funding awarded to their Family Fund will provide household items, clothing or food for families in emergency need that they are already working with.

Home-Start North Wiltshire (opens new window)

Kennet Furniture Refurbiz LTD (KFR) - Crisis Provision Fund which donates white goods and furniture to those in emergency need. The fund is run on a referral basis in partnership with 35 different organisations including Housing Associations, Citizens Advice, Children Centres, welfare and advice services etc who will refer individuals and families in need.

KFR (Kennet Furniture Refurbiz): Homepage (opens new window)

Malmesbury & District Food Bank - Proactive fuel grants to pre-identified households who have been referred to the food bank between October 2023 - March 2024.

Malmesbury & District Foodbank (opens new window)

Melksham Free Dining - Provides community meals and social activities to pensioners in Melksham. The funding contributes towards the provision of food at their community lunches and support welfare fund which provides grants towards household items, transport costs, supermarket vouchers for those in emergency need.

Bowerhill Village Hall: Melksham Free Dining (opens new window)

Pewsey Community Area Partnership (PCAP) - For Pewsey and the surrounding villages, this is a partnership of local organisations and the parish council supporting the local communities. Their Hardship Fund will provide grants towards household items, support transport costs, food or supermarket vouchers for households in emergency need living in Pewsey or the 26 surrounding parishes.

Pewsey Community Area Partnership (PCAP): Contact us (opens new window)

Rise:61 - Rise:61 is a youth charity in Bemerton Heath (Salisbury) providing free after school clubs, trips, mentoring and community events, alongside alternative education provision for young people struggling in mainstream education. HSF4 funding will contribute towards a hardship fund to support families they are working with who are in need with fuel bills, warm clothing, white goods and food.

Rise:61: Contact (opens new window)

Seeds4Success - Seeds4Success provides opportunities for personal and social development for young people living in South-West Wiltshire. To enable young people to access programmes that develop practical skills, enhance education, improve employability, provide recreational activities, conserve the natural environment and strengthen the local community. HSF4 funding will contribute towards the cost of transport for those in low-income households living in rural communities as well as the family fund to help support those in need with energy bills, supermarket vouchers or other essential household costs.

Seeds4Success (opens new window)

Trowbridge Future - Support for the vulnerable communities of Trowbridge. HSF4 funding will contribute towards providing warm spaces, food and support towards utility bills for households in emergency need.

Trowbridge Future (opens new window)

Waste Not Want Not - Around Chippenham, Corsham, Calne, Malmesbury, Melksham, Trowbridge and the surrounding villages, they provide low-cost furniture and household goods to people on lower incomes via their Fresh Start Scheme, which provides white goods and furniture to those in emergency need. The fund is run on a referral basis in partnership with welfare and advice services.

Waste Not Want Not: Fresh Start (opens new window)

Young Students - Grants to young people from low-income families who are studying at Higher Education level. The grants can be used towards travel, food or rent costs.

Wiltshire Community Foundation - Young Students (opens new window)

Wiltshire Parent Carer Council (WPCC) - The WPCC supports parent carers of children and young people with SEND. Funding will contribute toward white goods, clothing, food vouchers, transport to pre-identified vulnerable and struggling families they already work with.

Wiltshire Parent Carer Council (WPCC): Contact us (opens new window)

Surviving Winter Programme

Surviving Winter Advice and Support - Wiltshire Citizens Advice and Age UK Wiltshire work with WCF to offer benefit advice and support to pensioners, individuals of working age who have an underlying health condition or disability and families with children who have an underlying health condition or disability. This may help maximise their household income.

Citizens Advice Wiltshire: Get Advice (opens new window)

Age UK Wiltshire: Wiltshire Surviving Winter Grants (opens new window)

Surviving Winter Grants - Working with WCF partners, Wiltshire Citizens Advice, Age UK Wiltshire, Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living and Warm and Safe Wiltshire, energy grants will be provided to those in low-income households who are Pensioners, individuals of working age who have an underlying health condition or disability, families with children who have an underlying health condition or disability.

Age UK Wiltshire for people of pensionable age telephone 0808 1962424

Warm and Safe Wiltshire for people of working age telephone 0800 0385722

Age UK Wiltshire: Wiltshire Surviving Winter Grants (opens new window)

Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE): Warm & Safe Wiltshire (opens new window)

 The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) is the charity that delivers the Warm and Safe energy advice scheme for Wiltshire as a commissioned partner.

They have been allocated funding for replacement boilers, more efficient night storage heaters, food and fuel vouchers specifically for households with disability, unpaid carers, families with children of all ages and military families.

Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE): Warm & Safe Wiltshire (opens new window)

Age UK will utilise their HSF4 funding to provide free or subsidised hot meals and welfare checks for individuals who are struggling financially whilst waiting for a benefit claim to be processed.

They will carry out income maximisation checks to ensure all benefits and grants are claimed, and sustainable food provision is in place.

Age UK Wiltshire (opens new window)

FearFree is a charity which supports victims of domestic violence, and they will use their allocation of HSF4 to provide emergency assistance for families and individuals who are experiencing domestic abuse.

The fund will help victims with energy bills, food, clothing, transport and pre-paid emergency phones.

FearFree (opens new window)

Turning Point supports individuals across Wiltshire who are in long term recovery from drug and alcohol misuse.

The fund will be used to help their emergency crisis support.

Turning Point (turning-point.co.uk) (opens new window)

Support for families with children eligible for free school meals, for meals during school holidays will continue to be covered by the Household Support Fund for 2023-2024.

Schools in Wiltshire will contact families receiving free school meals directly to provide this support.

Contact your child's educational setting for more information or visit our Free school meals to see who is entitled to free school meals and how to apply.

Wiltshire Citizens Advice will use their funding to help private renters and homeless to access support and to provide vouchers for people struggling to buy food due to increases in housing costs due to tenure, property condition or housing support less than rent liability.

Citizens Advice Wiltshire: Get Advice (opens new window)

Wiltshire Council are seeking applications from boaters who live on the Kennet and Avon canal at leisure, residential or non-residential moorings, who have not previously been eligible for government support under the Energy Bill Support Scheme Alternative Funding (EBSS-AF).

As a member of the boating community, you may have missed out on energy support payments due to not having a postcode. Wiltshire Council has instigated access to HSF4 to support people with either a retail voucher or Post Office cash out voucher.

To apply for this latest scheme, boaters must complete a short form  and provide proof of an official, valid CRT Licence. This is to prevent fraudulent applications and to ensure only genuine boaters receive this new payment.

Eligible boaters who reside on either a leisure, residential or non-residential mooring, in Wiltshire and have not received either HSF4 or EBSS-AF payments in 2023-2024 can apply.

Applications need to be registered with Wiltshire Council by 31 March 2024 and will be processed before the end of April 2024.

Only one application per boat (household) will be processed

Successful applications will be honoured on a first come, first served basis, and will receive a voucher for £400.00.

If you feel you are eligible, or know of somebody who is, please complete the simple form or if you can't complete online, please call 0300 003 4576.

Update 1 April 2024
This scheme has now closed, and the form will no longer work.
Successful applicants will receive their award before the end of April 2024.
Unsuccessful applicants will be notified by email.