How we’re helping to feed families over the winter months

As well as being a trusted global leader in on-demand rewards, we work with councils and charities to help distribute vouchers for everyday essentials to households that need extra support.

In this article, we’ll explain what the UK government’s Household Support Fund is and the ways in which our team assists the invaluable initiative as well as other hardship funds.

What is the Household Support Fund?

The £500 million Household Support Fund was introduced by the government in September 2021 to give vulnerable households across the UK access to essentials such as food, clothing, utilities, and school meals over the winter.

Covering the period of 6th October 2021 to 31st March 2022, the Household Support Fund is distributed by councils across England to those who need it most. Devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will individually decide how to allocate the funding.

Those in need of the rapid short-term financial support to meet immediate needs have been asked to contact their local council who will provide information on how to access the fund.

How we’re helping to disburse funds

Our Public Sector team at Blackhawk Network works with councils, charities, and non-profits to help disburse a variety of hardship funds, like the Household Support Fund.

In 2020, our team delivered $250 million worth of emergency aids to vulnerable households across the planet, including £90 million in the UK alone.

Our support to families who need it most includes distributing millions of school meal vouchers. Issuing the food vouchers as prepaid cards, gift cards, and digital codes means that the recipients always get the full value of the voucher, instead of losing some of the total amount to overdraft fees and expenses.

A choice of funds

As well as distributing supermarket vouchers, such as Tesco and Morrisons, that are used to pay for school meals, we can also provide Select Essentials codes and One4All Favourites gift cards to households.

• Select Essentials: These can be used towards the cost of food, clothing, toiletries, and household and cleaning supplies at a variety of top supermarkets including Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Asda, Iceland, M&S, and Waitrose
• One4All Favourites: This multi-store range of gift cards can be redeemed at a number of retailers within different categories. For example, if the funding is to help with kitchen essentials, our Home & Garden Favourites card can be redeemed at homeware stores such as Argos and Robert Dyas

Quick, efficient, and cost-effective

With years of experience in creating fund disbursement programmes at scale and speed, we have the knowledge and tools to support initiatives such as the Household Support Fund.

This was evidenced in 2020 when we helped make a difference during the first push for free school meals. Our intelligent and flexible technology provides relief to overworked charities and non-profit organisations by providing the resources to distribute crucial support quickly, and at scale.

Just some of the benefits our fund disbursement support includes, are:

• Improved audit trails, as there’s no cash involved
• Aids are received within 24 hours of payment being received
• Funds are spent on the items for which they are intended
• Vouchers can be customised and have personalised messages
• There are admin and financial savings versus money transfers

Looking for support with your fund disbursement?

Whether it’s to combat the effects of the pandemic, lockdown, or unemployment, we can work with you to create a disbursement programme that is tailor-made for your beneficiaries.

From food vouchers and free school meals to multi-retailer gift cards we can help you to quickly provide the right support to those in need.

To find out more, get in touch today on 020 4517 5862.