The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced an extra £421 million will be available for local authorities across the UK to help households with energy bills, food costs and other daily essentials during the cost of living crisis. Scotland will receive an additional £41 million as part of the Barnett Consequentials, for a total of £123 million from this support fund so far.

The latest round of cash help from the Household Support Fund opened on October 1 and to access it, DWP is urging people to contact their local council and ask what help is available in their area. However, there’s been no indication yet on how the Scottish Government has distributed across its 32 local authorities.

This latest round of funding runs until March 31, 2023, and the Devolved administrations have been allocated a total of £238 million to their budgets, meaning the total value of this household support to date stands at £1.5 billion.

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