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<p>The current Household Support Fund runs from April 2023 until the end of March
2024, and the government continues to keep all its existing programmes under review
in the usual way.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has provided over £2 billion in funding
for the Household Support Fund since October 2021.</p><p>The Government is committed
to reducing poverty and supporting low-income households. Our approach to tackling
poverty is based on clear evidence that employment, particularly where its full time,
reduces the risk of poverty. In 2021/22, working age adults living in workless households
were seven times more likely to be in absolute poverty after housing costs than working
age adults in households where all adults work.</p><p>The Government is putting significant
additional support in place for those on the lowest incomes from April. Subject to
Parliamentary approval, working age benefits will rise by 6.7% while the Basic and
New State Pensions will be uprated by 8.5% in line with earnings, as part of the ‘triple
lock”.</p><p> </p><p>To further support low-income households with increasing rent
costs, the Government will raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile
of local market rents, benefitting 1.6 million low-income households by on average
£800 a year in 24/25. Additionally, the Government will increase the National Living
Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase
of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National
Living Wage.</p><p> </p>
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