COUNCILS across North Yorkshire will be providing extra support to eligible families after the government announced this week it was renewing Household Support Funding.

The £1bn scheme aims to help people meet essential living costs over Christmas and winter. In October, the county council received £3.5m in Household Support Funding from the Department for Work and Pensions.

The county, district and borough councils put together a criteria to provide supermarket vouchers to families who had a child under 19 living at home and who received means-tested council tax support or reduction.

It involved setting up an entirely new benefit service using limited data shared from eight local authorities and a proactive outreach and communications campaign.

Letters were sent to families who qualified and the take-up was 98 per cent, with 93.4 per cent of those eligible, applying before Christmas, enabling 8,370 households to receive their first e-voucher before Christmas.

That current phase of Government funding for the Household Support Fund has now closed, and anyone who has already received a unique code to access the vouchers has until Tuesday March 29 to claim their Household Support Fund e-voucher payment.

After this week's scheme extension, councils are working out details of the new phase of the scheme and will contact those eligible for any payments. Residents do not need to contact them themselves.

Neil Irving, Assistant Director for Policy, Partnerships and Communities, said: “We are currently awaiting details of the new round of funding announced in the Spring statement. As soon as the details of the new scheme are finalised, we will be getting in contact with those who are eligible, to let them know how to claim.”