Summer Food Voucher Scheme
Funded by the Department for Work and Pensions on behalf of the UK government, the Household Support Fund scheme supports vulnerable Kent households in need of help with significantly rising living costs.
HSF (Household Support Fund) Round 6 has now ended, and the Government has announced in the recent budget, a further 12-month extension to the HSF, meaning the HSF funding round 7 will run from April 2025 until March 2026.
The next HSF support scheme will be delivered from June to August and will offer an online public application route that enables individual self-referral, or professional referrals on behalf of individuals, to be made.
The Summer scheme will offer food voucher only support, to the value of £90, a winter scheme will follow later in the year and applicants will then have the additional option to choose between energy, food, or a combination of both energy and food support.
The Summer Food support scheme will open for applications from 12pm Tue 24 June 2025.The scheme is expected to close at 12pm on Tuesday 26 August 2025 but may close earlier if all the available HSF funds are allocated, therefore early application is strongly advised.
Evouchers.com will again be our online voucher supplier for this scheme any help your applicants may need to redeem the food vouchers can be found on their helpdesk webpages:
https://help.evouchers.com/hc/en-gb
https://help.evouchers.com/hc/en-gb/categories/11256166939409-I-m-a-recipient
Applicants receiving food vouchers will be able to choose a retailer from a list of selected retailers during the online application process. If you are making a referral for postal dispatch, please ensure the preferred supermarket store is pre-selected when applying as this cannot be amended once a supermarket voucher is issued. Where possible we ask that your keep postal referrals to absolute minimum as this significantly reduces the scheme costs and enables more residents to be supported from the available HSF funds provided. Postal fulfilment requests will take longer to be processed (allow an additional 10-20 working days due to the vagaries of the postal service!).
We welcome any support you can offer to assist those applicants being referred to download their vouchers.
There is a limited amount of funding available for this scheme and funds will be distributed on a first come, first served basis, with only one award per household.
Who is eligible?
There is an expectation for professionals to complete due diligence checks of applications to ensure that beneficiaries meet the revised eligibility criteria for this scheme as set out below.
We will be conducting counter fraud checks which include cross-checking applicants’ details against the DWP database and applicants that self-refer may be required to submit further evidence to prove that they are a Kent resident, within an eligible Kent district, at the point of application.
Key eligibility changes for this round are the removal of the £1000 savings threshold and a reduction in the household income threshold to £33,000 from £40,000 for those applicants not in receipt of a means tested benefit.
Applicants must
- be Aged16+
- be a Kent Resident, permanently living within one of the 12 local authorities covered by Kent County Council (this excludes Medway, Bromley, and Bexley)
- be in receipt of a means tested benefit, or where a means-tested benefit is not being received a household income before tax of £33,000 per year or less.
- not be eligible for Free School Meals HSF support*
(*Free School Meal eligible families will still receive a food voucher and holiday support, funded by HSF, for each eligible child via their child’s school, outside of this scheme.)
Note:
Residents with no recourse to public funding are still eligible for the scheme. If a National Insurance number is not available, please email kcc-hsffoodandenergysupport@kent.gov.uk with circumstances and reasons why the applicant should receive this support (please attach all supporting evidence to the email).
Application link:
If this support is required because of the increase in cost of living, please apply for the Household Support Fund on the following link:
Household Support Fund – Kent County Council (application form link will not appear until the scheme opens at 12pm on Tuesday 24th 2025)
All applications must be completed online, an offline bulk upload application template (minimum of 6 applicants) will be made available to professionals on request once the scheme is open.
Citizens Advice will also provide support to applicants who struggle to make online applications by calling the Citizens Advice freephone helpline on 0300 304 8003 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm – this line opens Tuesday 24 June until scheme closure) they will submit online applications on behalf of applicant.
Processing timescales
We do aim to send the relevant Food vouchers out as quickly as possible, however due to the high volume of demand and increased DWP fraud prevention measures we anticipate a likely processing time of up to 20 working days of a successful application being made (postal vouchers will take an additional 10-20 working days).
The applicant and referrer (if applicable) will receive an automated email to acknowledge successful application submission, and this will include the unique application reference number to be quoted in any future correspondence with us.
Where possible would encourage all applicants to use mobile smartphone/email to receive their food voucher and if possible, to download the Evouchers app to their smartphone for ease of access to the food vouchers.
Be aware of scammers
Be aware of criminals trying to capitalise on schemes like this. This scheme does not require any bank account details, and we will never request these details over the phone or via email or text message. Be sure to check whether links and emails are genuine before responding.
Future Communications
Please feel free to share this information with your own professional networks, or pass on the subscription link, https://forms.office.com/e/2aKaNrjwBi, to our HSF communications mailing list to receive the latest news and updates on the scheme.
Additional Queries
If you have any additional queries regarding this scheme, please contact the team at kcc-hsffoodandenergysupport@kent.gov.uk or via our direct contact number 03000 412424
