Oldham MP urges Government to keep ‘vital fund’

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams has launched a campaign urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to retain the Household Support Fund (HSF), which she says has been a ‘lifeline’ for people in Oldham and Saddleworth.

Ninety Parliamentarians, led by Ms Abrahams, have told the Chancellor that “keeping the HSF will help to offset the cost of living crisis that still so many families are facing.

"It is simultaneously the right thing to do and the fiscally prudent choice.

"We believe that removing the HSF will push more people into poverty and destitution at this time, putting their health, and their children’s health, at risk.” 

The Group includes former Labour ministers Stephen Timms, David Blunkett and Peter Hain as well as former Conservative Chief Whip and Thatcher Minister George Young and former leadership candidate Rehman Chishti.

Former Green Party leaders Caroline Lucas and Natalie Bennett, current Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper and the Bishops of Manchester and Leicester also signed the letter to Mr Hunt. 

The Fund was introduced in October 2021 to provide local crisis support.

Since then, through local authorities, £2.5bn of essential welfare support has been made available to individuals and families struggling to make ends meet during the cost of living crisis.

The recent End Furniture Poverty charity Freedom of Information request to Local Authorities revealed the extent that the Fund is needed to provide local welfare assistance.

It has helped with food, energy and water bills, and other essential items during the school holidays. 

In the last six months, Oldham has been allocated £2.4 million, which has spent on reported 102,157 awards in our area, mostly on free school meals during the school holidays. 

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘UK Poverty 24’ report last month highlighted that over a fifth of Brits are living in poverty, with dramatic increases in deep poverty and destitution since 2017.  

More broadly, as a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, Ms Abrahams has been campaigning to increase the generosity of the social security system, which evidence from various charities, including the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Trussell Trust, has revealed is the main cause of the levels of poverty, deep poverty and destitution reported in Britain today. 

Ms Abrahams is a supporter of the JRF and Trussell Trust’s ‘Essentials Guarantee’ campaign, which seeks to increase Universal Credit’s standard allowance payment to a level that ensures the essentials are afforded rather than social security support being based on some arbitrary figure. 

In addition to lobbying for an Inquiry on Benefit Levels, which the Select Committee is due to publish shortly, she has also pushed the Select Committee to undertake a safeguarding inquiry in the Department for Work and Pensions following on from the deaths of social security claimants. 

Ms Abrahams said: “During my regular street surgeries, so many Oldham and Saddleworth residents have reiterated that they are continuing to struggle through this deep and ongoing cost of living crisis.

"Just last week I had constituents contact my office at the end of their tether.

"It would be totally wrong for the Government to withdraw this Household Support Fund support help from the thousands of people in our area who are being supported at this challenging time. 

"I will continue to campaign for improvements to our inadequate social security system that ends the moral scandal of poverty and destitution in Oldham, Saddleworth and across the country.”

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